Irf'iAji/Ari  f 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00022092646 


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EOLLOAT  SCHOOL. 


THE  ROLLO  SERIES 


18    COMPOSED   OF   FOURTEEN  VOLUMES,  VII 


Rollo  Learning  to  Talk. 
Rollo  Learning  to  Read. 
Rollo  at  Work. 
Rollo  at  Play. 
Rollo  at  School. 
Rollo's  Vacation. 
Roilo's  Experiments. 


Rollo's  Museum. 
Roilo's  Travels. 
Rollo's  Correspondence. 
Rollo's  Philosophy— Water. 
Rollo's  Philosophy — Air. 
Rollo's  Philosophy— Fire. 
Rollo's  Philosophy— Sky. 


A   NEW   EDITION,   REVISED   BY   THE   AUTHOR. 


BOSTON: 

PHILLIPS,  SAMPSON,  AND  COMPANY. 

NEW  YORK :  JAMES   C.  DERBY. 


PREFATORY   NOTICE. 


As  the  little  readers  of  "  Rollo  at  Work11 
and  "  Rollo  at  Play,"  have  done  the  author  the 
honor  to  manifest  some  interest  in  the  continua- 
tion of  his  juvenile  hero's  history,  they  are  now 
presented  with  "  Rollo  at  School"  and  "  Rol- 
lo's  Vacation."  Under  the  guise  of  a  narrative 
of  Rollo's  adventures  in  these  new  situations, 
these  little  books  are  intended  to  exhibit  some  of 
the  temptations,  the  trials,  the  difficulties,  and  the 
duties,  which  all  children  experience  in  circum- 
stances similar.  That  the  reader  may  be  profited 
as  well  as  amused  by  the  perusal,  is  the  sincere 

wish  of 

The  Author. 

Roxbury,  October  18, 1838. 


CONTENTS. 


The    Beginning, 7 

Dovey, 30 

Doveyism, 53 

Ingenuousness, 65 

Submission, 83 

Pertinacity, 100 

Order, 113 

Title  to   Property, 141 

The  Reason  why, 156 

The  Holiday « 172 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


THE  BEGINNING. 

One  pleasant  Monday  morning,  Rollo  came 
to  the  door  which  opened  upon  the  plat- 
form behind  his  father's  house,  and  looked 
out  into  the  little  green  yard,  and  across  to 
the  garden.  Then  he  looked  over  towards 
the  barn.  He  seemed  to  be  looking  for  some- 
body. Then  he  turned  round,  and  took  down 
a  small  ivory  whistle  which  hung  in  the 
entry,  by  the  side  of  the  door.  It  was  hung 
upon  a  small  nail  by  a  green  silk  ribbon. 

He  stood  out  upon  the  platform  and  blew 
the  whistle  loud  and  long. 

In  a  moment  he  heard  a  voice,  which  seem- 
ed to  be  out  behind  the  barn,  answer,  "Aye, 
aye." 

He  looked  in  that  direction,  and  presently 
a  large  boy  came  around  the  corner  of  the 
barn  and  walked  along  towards  him.     His 


8-  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

jacket  was  off,  as  if  he  had  been  at  work,  and 
he  had  a  little  hatchet  in  his  hand. 

(l  Come,  Jonas,"  said  Rollo,  "  mother  wants 
you  to  go  with  me  to  school." 

Jonas  looked  and  saw  that  Rollo  was  dress- 
ed very  neatly,  and  that  he  had  a  book  and 
slate  in  his  hand.  He  said  he  would  come 
as  soon  as  he  had  put  on  his  jacket. 

So  Jonas  put  the  hatchet  away  in  its  place, 
and  put  on  his  jacket,  and  then  went  around 
to  the  front  door,  where  he  found  Rollo  wait- 
ing for  him  ;  and  they  walked  along  together. 

"Did  you  ever  go  to  school,  Jonas?"  said 
Rollo. 

l-  Yes,"  replied  Jonas,  "  I  went  once." 

"  Don't  you  wish  you  could  go  now?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Jonas,  "  I  think  I  should  like 
it  better  than  you  will." 

"Better  than  I?"  said  Rollo,  looking  up 
surprised ;  "  why,  I  like  it  very  much  indeed." 

"  You  have  n't  tried  it  yet,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Oh,  but  I  know  I  shall  like  it." 

"  You  can  tell  better  by  and  by,"  said  Jonas. 
"  Boys  don't  generally  like  going  to  school 
very  well." 

"  But  I  do,"  said  Rollo. 

"  They  all  like  it  the  first  day;  but  after- 
wards they  find  a  great  many  things  which 
they  do  not  like  very  well." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  \t 

"  What  things?"  asked  Rollo. 

"Why,  sometimes  you  will  get  playing 
after  breakfast,  and  when  school  time  comes 
you  will  not  want  to  go.  Then  your  studies 
will  be  hard  sometimes  and  you  will  get  tired  of 
them;  and  then  some  of  the  boys  will  be  cross 
to  you,  perhaps." 

Rollo  felt  somewhat  disappointed  at  hear- 
ing such  an  account  of  the  business  of  going 
to  school,  from  Jonas.  He  had  expected  that 
it  was  to  be  all  pleasure,  and  he  could  not 
help  thinking  that  Jonas  must  be  mistaken 
about  it.  However,  he  said  nothing,  but 
walked  along  slowly  and  silently. 

Presently  they  came  down  to  the  little 
bridge  that  leads  across  the  brook  on  the  way 
to  the  school-house,  where  they  had  found  a 
bird's  nest  some  time  before,  and  Rollo  pro- 
posed that  they  should  go  and  look  at  their 
bird's  nest. 

"No,"  said  Jonas,  "  we  must  not  go  now. 
It  is  never  right  to  stop  by  the  way,  going  to 
school,  without  leave." 

"Why?"  said  Rollo. 

"  It  will  make  us  late,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Oh,  but  we  will  not  stop  but  a  minute," 
said  Rollo.  lingering  behind  a  little,  and  look- 
ing towards  the  tree. 


10  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL, 

Jonas  laughed,  but  kept  walking  on,  look- 
ing around  to  Rollo,  to  see  if  he  was  follow- 
ing. But  Rollo  stood  by  the  side  of  the 
bridge,  looking  at  Jonas  as  lie  went  along. 

u  Just  one  minute,  Jonas,"  said  he. 

Jonas  shook  his  head  and  walked  on. 
Presently  he  turned  round  and  walked  back- 
wards, facing  Rollo. 

RoHo,  rinding  that  Jonas  would  not  stop, 
began  to  follow  him  slowly,  but  he  looked 
very  much  vexed.  He  thought  that  Jonas 
was  very  ill  natured  not  to  stop  for  him  just 
one  minute. 

By  the  time  Jonas  had  got  to  the  top  of  the 
hill,  Rollo  overtook  him,  and  then  he  walked 
along  in  silence  for  a  few  minutes.  -  At  last 
he  said  pettishly,  "  I  will  stop  when  I  am 
coming  home,  at  any  rate." 

"  I  advise  you  not  to,"  said  Jonas. 

"Why  not?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Because  your  father  told  you  that  you 
must  not  stop,  going  or  coming." 

"  Well,  T  am  not  going  to  stop;  I  shall  only 
go  and  look  at  the  bird's  nest,  and  then  walk 
on;  it  won't  take  any  time  at  all." 

"  That  is  the  way  I  have  known  a  great 
many  boys  to  get  punished,"  said  Jonas. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  11 

"How?"  saidRollo. 

"  Why,  they  stop  a  little  going  to  school  to 
play,  and  think  they  are  only  going  to  stop  a 
minute ;  but  then  they  forget,  and  play  about 
a  great  deal  longer  than  they  meant  to,  and 
so  get  very  late." 

"And  then  do  they  get  punished?"  said 
Rollo.  "  My  father  would  not  punish  me,  if 
£  only  stopped  a  minute." 

"  Perhaps  he  would  n't,  but  then  if  you  stop 
at  all,  you  will  be  likely  to  stop  more  than  a 
minute." 

By  this  time  they  came  in  sight  of  the 
house  where  the  school  was  kept.  It  was 
a  farm-house,  standing  among  some  trees, 
by  the  side  of  the  road.  There  was  a  very 
pleasant  yard  on  one  side,  with  a  wagon  in 
it,  and  some  woodpiles  and  chips,  and  some 
barns  and  sheds  on  the  other  side  of  it. 

"  Is  that  the  school-house?  "  said  Rollo. 

"The  school  is  kept  in  that  house.  That 
is  where  Miss  Mary  lives,  and  she  keeps  the 
school  in  the  orchard  room." 

"  The  orchard  room?"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  the  room  leading  out  into  the  or- 
chard, on  the  other  side." 

The  boys  walked  along  the  road  in  front 
of  the  house,  and  when  they  had  got  just  be- 


12  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

yond  it,  Jonas  opened  a  small  gate,  which  led 
under  some  trees  by  a  little  path,  around  the 
other  side  of  the  house.  A  large  orchard  ex- 
tended from  the  house  in  this  direction,  with 
handsome  trees  in  it,  and  fine  green  grass 
under  them.  They  saw  a  door  here,  leading 
into  a  room  which  projected  out  into  the  or- 
chard. There  was  a  little  portico  before  the 
door,  and  a  large  smooth  flat  stone  on  the 
ground  before  the  portico.  The  grass  came 
up  all  around  near  to  the  stone,  except  where 
the  path  came.  Two  children  were  sitting  on 
the  floor  of  the  portico,  with  their  feet  upon  the 
flat  stone.  They  had  books  in  their  hands  and 
their  lips  were  moving.  They  looked  up  and 
saw  Jonas  and  Rollo,  but  went  on  studying. 

As  the  boys  passed  by  the  window,  which 
was  open,  they  saw  the  scholars  and  the 
teacher,  in  the  room ;  and  the  teacher,  whom 
the  scholars  always  called  Miss  Mary,  saw 
them  and  came  to  the  door,  just  as  Jonas  and 
Rollo  stepped  up  into  the  portico.  She  look- 
ed pleased  to  see  the  boys. 

Jonas  took  off  his  hat  as  he  came  up  to  her 
and  said, 

"  Here  is  Rollo." 

"Ah,  Rollo,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "how  do 
you  do?    I  am  glad  to  see  you."     She  took 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  15 

Rollo  by  the  hand  and  led  him  in,  and  Jonas 
turned  around,  put  on  his  hat,  and  walked 
away. 

Miss  Mary  led  Rollo  into  the  school-room. 
He  found  that  the  children  were  just  taking 
their  seats.  Miss  Mary  led  him  to  a  seat  at 
a  little  desk  by  the  window.  The  desk  was 
long  enough  for  two,  and  there  was  a  boy 
sitting  at  one  half  of  it  already.  This  boy 
was  not  so  large  as  Rollo.  He  looked  up  very 
much  pleased  when  he  saw  Rollo  coming  to 
sit  by  him.  Miss  Mary  told  Rollo  that  his 
name  was  Henry,  and  that  they  must  both  be 
good  boys  and  not  whisper  and  play.  Then 
she  turned  away  to  her  own  seat  at  a  table,. 
at  one  side  of  the  room.  By  this  time  the 
children  all  over  the  room  had  become  stilly 
and  Miss  Mary  opened  a  little  Bible  which 
she  had  on  the  table,  and  it  seemed  as  if  she 
was  going  to  read.  All  the  children  sat 
looking  towards  her  attentive  and  still. 

She  only  read  two  or  three  verses,  but  then 
she  stopped  to  explain  them  very  fully,  so 
that  the  reading  and  her  remarks  occupied 
considerable  time.  One  of  the  verses  she 
read  was  this  : — 

"  If  I  regard  iniquity  in  my  heart \  the  Lord 
will  not  hear  me,71 


16  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

She  explained  this  to  the  children  thus: 
"  God  will  not  listen  to  us  when  we  pray  to 
him,  if  he  is  displeased  with  us ;  and  he  is 
displeased  with  us  just  as  much  when  we 
have  iniquity  in  our  hearts,  as  when  we  ex- 
hibit it  in  our  actions.  A  bad  boy  was  once 
walking  along  the  street  in  a  city,  and  he  saw 
a  basket  of  apples  at  the  door  of  a  store.-  He 
though  he  would  put  out  his  hand  slyly, 
when  he  went  by,  and  take  one.  That  was 
having  iniquity  in  his  heart.  He  had  not 
done  any  thing  wrong,  he  was  only  intending 
to  do  something  wrong.'* 

"  Well,  did  he  take  one  when  he  came  to 
them?"  asked  Henry. 

"  No,"  said  Miss  Mary ;  "  when  he  got 
close  to  the  basket,  and  was  just  putting  out 
his  hand,  he  happened  to  look  into  the  store, 
and  he  saw  the  man  standing  there.  So  hs 
hastily  withdrew  his  hand  and  walked  on, 
trying  to  look  careless  and  unconcerned. 

"Now  was  there  any  thing  wrong  in  this 
boy's  actions?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  the  children. 

"  No,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  not  in  his  action. 
He  did  not  steal  the  apple.  He  walked  di- 
rectly by  just  as  he  ought  to  do. 

H  Was  there  any  thing  wrong  in  his  looks  ?" 

"  No,  ma'am." 


ROLLO  AT    SCHOOL.  17 

"  Was  there  any  thing  wrong  in  his  heart?11 

"Yes,  ma'am,"  said  all  the  children,  for 
now  they  began  to  understand  fully  what 
Miss  Mary  meant. 

"  That  is  right,"  said  Miss  Mary.  "  Now 
children  in  school  very  often  cherish  iniquity 
in  their  hearts.  Something  prevents  their 
actually  doing  the  wrong  thing,  but  then  they 
want  to  do  it,  they  try  to  do  it,  they  watch 
for  an  opportunity  to  do  it,  and  so  they  are 
guilty  in  heart. 

"  Now,"  continued  Miss  Mary,  "  we  are  all 
going  to  pray  to  God  to  take  care  of  us  to-day, 
but  if  any  of  you  have  any  idea  or  intention 
of  doing  any  thing  wrong  to-day,  or  any 
thing  which  you  think  is  perhaps  wrong,  God 
sees  it.  It  is  iniquity  in  your  heart,  and  he 
will  not  hear  your  prayer.  We  had  better 
give  up  all  such  iniquity,  and  determine  to 
do  what  is  right.  Then  God  will  hear  us, 
and  take  care  of  us,  and  keep  us  safe  and 
happy." 

Now  all  the  scholars  listened  very  atten- 
tively to  these  remarks,  but  it  happened  that 
there  were  two  who  took  more  particular  no- 
tice of  them  than  the  others.  These  two 
were  Rollo  and  his  cousin  Lucy,  who  went  to 
this  school,  and  who  sat  before  another  win- 


18  KOLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

dow  across  the  room.  Rollo  began  to  think 
that  perhaps  the  intention  which  he  was  se- 
cretly entertaining,  of  stopping  after  school 
to  see  the  bird's  nest  might  be  cherishing 
iniquity  in  his  heart.  First  he  thought  it 
was, — then  he  thought  it  was  not,  because  he 
was  only  going  to  stop  a  very  little  while. 
Then  he  recollected  that  his  father  had  told 
him  he  must  come  directly  home,  and  there- 
fore it  must  be  wrong  for  him  to  stop  at  all. 
He  tried  to  determine  to  go  directly  home, 
and  thus  give  up  the  iniquity  which  was  in 
his  heart,  but  he  could  not  quite  determine. 
He  wanted  just  to  take  one  peep  at  the  nest, 
and  resolved  to  go  home  immediately  after. 
He  tried  to  satisfy  himself  with  this,  but  he 
could  not  feel  quite  easy. 

While  these  thoughts  were  passing  through 
his  mind,  and  just  as  Miss  Mary  had  finished 
her  remarks,  he  happened  to  be  looking  to- 
wards Lucy,  and  he  saw  that  she  opened  the 
lid  of  her  desk  a  little  way,  and  put  her  hand 
in.  Presently  she  withdrew  her  hand  very 
cautiously,  and  Rollo,  watching  her,  observed 
that  she  had  in  it  a  little  sprig  from  an  apple 
tree,  with  a  large,  beautiful,  spotted  butterfly 
upon  it,  and  threw  it  out  of  the  window.  All 
this  happened  just  at  the  moment  when  the 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  19 

scholars  were  reclining  their  heads  forward 
upon  their  desks,  to  listen  to  Miss  Mary's 
morning  prayer. 

Rollo  did  not  understand  what  this "  all 
meant.  The  truth  was  that  Lucy  had  found 
this  great  butterfly  when  coming  to  school, 
and  had  carefully  put  it  in  her  desk,  intending 
to  take  it  out  and  look  at  it  when  the  school 
was  begun.  She  knew  that  this  was  wrong, 
but  had  not  thought  much  about  it,  until  she 
heard  Miss  Mary's  remarks,  when  she  saw 
plainly  that  this  plan  of  playing  with  the 
butterfly  in  school  was  iniquity  in  her  heart, 
and  was  consequently  a  sin  against  God. 
Unlike  Rollo,  she  determined  to  give  it  up 
immediately,  and  as  she  wanted  very  much 
that  •  God  should  listen  to  her  prayer,  and 
take  care  of  her,  she  thought  she  would  take 
out  the  butterfly  immediately  and  throw  it 
out  of  the  window,  before  the  prayer  should 
be  begun. 

1  said  she  threw  the  butterfly  out  of  the 
window,  but  this  is  not  exactly  correct,  for 
there  was  a  gentle  breeze  blowing  in  at  the 
window  at  that  time,  which  prevented  the 
sprig  and  the  butterfly  from  going  out.  They 
fell  together  upon  the  window  sill,  and  the 
butterfly,  frightened  to  see  himself  tossed  about 


20  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

in  this  way,  spread  his  broad  wings  and  pre- 
pared to  fly.  All  this  happened  in  a  moment. 
Lucy  looked  distressed  and  anxious.  Rollo 
looked  pleased  to  see  such  a  beautiful  butterfly. 
He  touched  Henry  to  make  him  look  at  it, 
and  the  other  children,  attracted  by  Rollo' s 
movements,  looked  round,  and  saw  the 
great  butterfly  as  he  was  wafted  in  by  the 
breeze,  and  floated  fluttering  through  the  air. 

In  a  minute  or  two  there  was  such  a  dis- 
turbance that  Miss  Mary  was  obliged  to  stop, 
and  she  looked  up  to  see  what  was  the  cause. 
The  butterfly  lighted  upon  her  table.  The 
children  laughed  at  first,  but  then  suddenly 
looked  sober  again,  expecting  that  Miss  Mary 
would  be  very  much  displeased.  But  she  did 
not  look  displeased.  She  looked  just  as  usual. 
,She  thought  the  children  had  done  wrong, 
but  she  did  not  think  they  were  very  much 
to  blame  for  having  their  attention  diverted, 
when  there  was  such  a  great  spotted  butter- 
fly flying  about  the  room. 

"Poor  thing!"  said  she;  "we  will  not 
hurt  him.  I  suppose  he  flew  in  at  the  win- 
dow ;  he  did  not  know  there  was  a  school  in 
here." 

So  she  held  a  piece  of  paper  before  him  and 
the  butterfly  stepped  upon  it.     Then  she  gave 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  21 

him  to  one  of  the  older  children  to  be  carried 
out. 

Lucy  felt  very  uneasy  at  having  made  so 
much  trouble,  and  then  she  did  not  think  it 
was  right  for  her  to  let  Miss  Mary  suppose 
the  butterfly  flew  in  of  his  own  accord,  when, 
in  fact,  she  brought  him  in.  So  she  came 
pretty  soon,  when  she  had  a  good  opportunity, 
and  explained  it  all  to  her.  Miss  Mary  heard 
her  story,  and  then  told  her  to  take  her  seat 
and  go  on  with  her  lessons,  and  not  trouble 
herself  any  more  about  it. 

In  the  mean  time  Rollo  went  on  studying 
the  lessons  which  Miss  Mary  had  assigned 
him,  and  took  care  to  be  still  and  industrious. 
This  was  partly  because  he  wished  to  be  a 
good  boy,  and  partly  because  he  was  some- 
what afraid  among  so  many  strangers.  By 
and  by  there  was  a  recess,  and  then  the  chil- 
dren played  around  among  the  trees,  in  the 
orchard,  and  enjoyed  themselves  very  much. 
Henry  led  Rollo  around  behind  the*  house, 
where  they  could  see  through  the  cracks  of  a 
high  fence  into  a  large  yard,  where  there  were 
hens  and  chickens,  and  ducks,  and  little  gos- 
lings. Rollo  and  Henry  looked  through,  and 
Rollo  wanted  to  go  around  in  and  see  them, 
but  Henry  told  him  they  were  not  allowed  to 
go  to  that  side  of  the  house  without  leave. 


22  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Just  before  it  was  time  for  school  to  be 
closed,  Miss  Mary  asked  all  the  scholars  to 
shut  up  their  books  and  put  them  away. 
They  all  did  so,  and  they  took  pains  to  put 
them  in  neat  order  in  their  desks.  When 
the  room  was  still,  she  told  them  all  to  look 
at  her,  and  listen,  for  she  wished  to  say  some- 
thing more  about  the  butterfly. 

The  scholars  all  looked  towards  her  much 
interested,  only  Lucy  seemed  rather  troubled. 
She  was  afraid  that  Miss  Mary  was  going  to 
find  fault  with  her,  before  all  the  school,  for 
causing  so  much  disturbance.  When,  how- 
ever, all  were  still,  Miss  Mary  addressed  them 
thus:— 

"I  find,  children,  that  that  great  butterfly 
did  not  come  into  the  school-room  this  morn- 
ing of  his  own  accord.  One  of  the  scholars 
brought  him  in." 

Here  Lucy  hung  her  head  and  looked 
ashamed.  The  rest  of  the  scholars  looked 
around  jipon  one  another,  wondering  who  it 
could  be.  Rollo  looked  up  very  boldly,  with  a 
very  self-satisfied  air,  pleased  to  think  both 
that  he  was  not  himself  the  guilty  one,  and 
that  he  knew  who  was. 

"  I  am  sure  it  was  not  I,"  said  Henry. 

"  Hush,"  said  Rollo. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  23 

Miss  Mary  took  no  notice  of  these  remarks, 
but  proceeded  thus : 

"It  was  one  of  the  girls,  but  I  am  not  going 
to  tell  you  which  one  it  was.  She  found  the 
large  butterfly,  and  brought  it  into  school  and 
put  it  in  her  desk.     Was  this  right  or  wrong?" 

"  Wrong,"  said  the  children. 

"  Yes,  it  is  wrong  to  bring  any  thing  to 
school  that  will  take  off  your  attention  from 
your  studies.  But  I  do  not  think  she  was 
very  much  to  blame.  She  did  not  think  much 
about  it  Still  she  intended  to  play  with  it, 
and  this  was  wrong. 

"  Now  when  she  heard  what  I  said  at  the 
beginning  of  the  school  about  regarding  sin  in 
your  heart,  she  was  sorry  that  she  had  the 
butterfly  in  her  desk,  and  concluded  to  put 
him  out.     Was  this  right  or  wrong?" 

"Right,  '  said  the  children. 

"  Yes,  she  was  certainly  in  a  right  state  of 
mind  about  it.  She  determined  to  give  up 
her  secret  sin.  I  am  afraid  that  there  were 
some  other  children  in  the  school  who  heard 
what  I  said,  and  who  could  think  of  some 
secret  sins  which*  they  were  cherishing,  and 
which  they  could  not  find  it  in  their  hearts  to 
give  up,  as  this  girl  was  willing  to  give  up 
hers." 


24  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

Here  Rollo,  in  his  turn,  began  to  hang  his 
head  a  little,  and  Lucy  looked  up  considera- 
bly relieved. 

u  But  the  butterfly  did  not  go  out  of  the 
window.  The  girl  threw  the  sprig  that  he 
was  upon,  but  it  fell  down  upon  the  window 
sill." 

"What  is  the  window  sill?"  said  a  little 
bright-eyed  girl,  who  sat  in  front  of  Miss 
Mary,  and  was  looking  up  to  her  very  atten- 
tively. 

"It  is  that  wooden  piece  that  goes  across 
the  bottom  of  the  window,"  said  Miss  Mary, 
pointing  to  it. 

"  The  butterfly,"  she  continued,  "  lodged 
there  and  then  flew  back  into  the  room,  just 
at  the  commencement  of  prayers.  Now  1 
want  you  to  consider  whether  this  girl  was 
to  blame,  or  not,  for  this  disturbance." 

The  scholars  gave  various  answers;  some 
said  yes,  and  some  said  no. 

"  There  was  a  man  once,"  continued  Miss 
Mary,  "  who  had  two  boys  ;  he  told  them  not 
to  play  ball  in  the  yard,  for  fear  they  should 
break  the  windows,  but  that  they  might  play 
in  i'ae  field.  When  his  father  went  away, 
one  of  the  boys  played  in  the  yard,  but  did 
not  happen  to  break  any  glass.     The  other 


ROLLO  AT  SCHOOL.  25 

played  in  the  field,  as  his  father  had  allowed 
him  but  once,  when  he  gave  the  ball  a  hard 
knock,  it  ( ame  over  to  the  house,  and  broke 
a  pane  in  one  of  the  parlor  sashes.  When 
their  father  came  home  and  heard  how  it  was, 
he  said  that  one  of  his  boys  had  been  very 
much  to  blame;  which  do  you  think  it  was, 
the  one  who  broke  the  glass,  or  the  one  who 
disobeyed  his  father?" 

"The  one  who  disobeyed,"  said  the  chil- 
dren. 

"  Yes,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  and  if  he  had 
broken  a  window,  by  playing  in  the  yard,  he 
would  not  have  been  any  more  guilty  than 
he  was  without  breaking  it.  So  that  when 
you  do  any  thing  wrong,  you  are  to  blame, 
whether  any  bad  consequences  come  from  it  or 
not.  If  a  bad  boy  throws  a  stone  at  another, 
he  is  just  as  much  to  blame  if  it  does  not  hit 
him  as  he  is  if  it  does.  If  you  go  to  a  dan- 
gerous place  where  you  are  forbidden  to  go, 
you  are  just  as  much  to  blame  if  you  get  back 
safely  as  you  would  be  if  you  got  hurt.  If 
you  stop  to  play  coming  to  school,  you  are 
just  as  much  to  blame  if  you  find  school  has 
not  begun  when  you  get  here,  as  you  would 
be  if  you  were  very  tardy.  Don't  you  all 
think  so  V1 

b  3 


26  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"No,  ma'am,"  said  the  little  bright-eyed 
girl. 

"  Why  not?"  said  Miss  Mary 

"  Because  if  we  are  not  tardy  then  there 
is  no  harm  done." 

"Yes,  there  is  great  harm  done.  You  do 
what  you  know  is  wrong;  you  thus  hurt 
your  peace  of  mind,  make  yourselves  un- 
happy, and  make  it  easier  for  you  to  do  wrong 
the  next  time ;  you  disobey  your  parents  or 
your  teacher,  and  offend  Almighty  God." 

The  little  girl  was  convinced  and  did  not 
say  another  word. 

"  Now,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "to  go  back  to 
the  butterfly, — the  girl  who  brought  him  in 
determined  to  let  him  go  again,  to  prevent  his 
making  any  play  or  disturbance  in  school. 
But  instead  of  this  she  unfortunately  caused 
a  great  disturbance.  Now  was  she  to  blame 
for  this  disturbance?" 

"  No,  ma'am,"  said  all  the  children. 

"  That  is  right,  and  I  did  not  blame  her  at 
all.  And  now  since  I  do  not  blame  her  for  it 
at  all,  why  do  you  suppose  I  have  made  all 
this  talk  about  a  butterfly?" 
•  The  children  looked  at  Miss  Mary  without 
answering. 

"  It  is  to  teach  you  several  important  truths. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  27 

Can  any  of  you  tell  what  truths  I  have  been 
attempting  to  teach  you  by  this  conversation?" 

The  children  hesitated.  At  length  one 
said  timidly,  "  We  must  not  stop  to  play, 
coming  to  school/'' 

"  We  are  not  to  blame  if  we  break  the 
windows  accidentally,"  said  another. 

"  We  must  .  not  bring  playthings  into 
school,"  said  a  third. 

"  That  is  pretty  well,"  said  Miss  Mary; 
"  I  see  you  understand  what  I  have  been  say- 
ing, but  perhaps  I  can  express  it  better  than 
you  do." 

"  When  you  do  wrong,  your  guilt  depends 
upon  your  hearts,  your  intentions,  and  your 
acts,  and  not  upon  the  bad  consequences  that 
follow.  When  bad  consequences  follow,  they 
do  not  make  you  guilty  when  you  mean  and 
do  right ;  and  if  they  do  not  follow,  that  does 
not  make  you  innocent  when  you  mean  and 
do  wrong. 

"  That  is  the  main  thing  I  have  been  en- 
deavoring to  teach.  The  other  things  that 
the  children  mentioned  are  true  also,  and 
I  hope  you  will  remember  them.  Whenever 
you  stop  to  play  by  the  way,  without  leave, 
and  whenever  you  bring  any  playthings  se- 
cretly to  school,   you  are  doing  wrong,  and 


28  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

that  whether  you  get  into  any  difficulty  by 
it  or  not." 

When  Miss  Mary  had  said  this,  she  struck 
a  little  bell  gently,  which  was  before  her  upon 
her  table,  and  all  the  scholars  rose  and  began 
to  talk  and  put  on  their  things.  So  Hollo 
knew  that  school  was  done.  The  girls  and 
boys  went  out  of  the  door,  and  walked  along 
the  path,  two  and  three  together,  talking  and 
laughing,  and  skipping  along  merrily.  Rollo 
and  Henry  followed  the  rest ;  they  separated 
at  the  gate,  and  each  went  towards  his  own 
home. 

As  Rollo  walked  along  alone,  the  question 
at  once  came  up  in  his  mind  whether  he 
should  just  go  and  look  at  the  bird's  nest  a 
moment  or  not.  He  saw  now  very  clearly 
that  it  would  be  wrong ;  that  even  if  he  did 
not  stop  but  a  minute,  so  as  to  be  only  so 
little  after  the  proper  time  that  his  mother 
should  not  notice  it,  still  it  would  be  wrong ; 
and  even  if  he  should  run  afterwards,  so  as 
to  get  home  without  being  late  at  all,  it  would 
be  wrong.  And  so  he  determined  not  to  do 
a  ny  such  thing.  He  determined  to  walk  direct- 
ly by.  Nest  or  no  nest,  eggs  or  no  eggs,  he 
determined  to  go  directly  by.  And  he  did  so. 
He  walked  directly  home  and  went  in,  feel- 
ing innocent  and  happy. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  29 

This  decision  saved  Rollo  a  great  deal  of 
trouble,  for  always  after  this  he  found  it  quite 
easy  to  go  directly  to  school  and  back,  and 
never  got  into  trouble  by  loitering  on  the  way. 
A  great  many  boys  and  girls  get  gradually  into 
the  habit  of  stopping  to  play,  in  going  to  and 
from  school,  until  at  last  their  parents  or 
teacher,  after  warning  them  and  reproving 
them  a  great  many  times,  are  at  length 
obliged  to  punish  them  ;  and  by  this  time  the 
habit  has  become  so  confirmed  that  they  suf- 
fer a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  sorrow  before 
they  are  cured.  Rollo  had  great  reason  to 
be  thankful  to  Miss  Mary  for  the  instructions 
she  gave  him  on  his  first  day  at  her  school. 


3* 


30  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


DOVEY. 

In  the  afternoon  Rollo  went  to  school  again, 
but  before  he  went  he  asked  his  father  if  he 
might  stop  a  few  minutes  on  the  way,  coming 
home,  and  look  at  the  bird's  nest.  His  father 
said  yes. 

Rollo  went  alone  in  the  afternoon,  for  now 
he  knew  the  way.  He  got  there  in  good  sea- 
son, and  took  his  seat,  with  Henry  by  his 
side. 

He  wrote  in  his  writing  book,  and  studied 
several  lessons,  though  Miss  Mary  did  not  tell 
him  exactly  what  classes  he  would  be  in. 
She  told  him  that  she  should  like  to  have  him 
stop  after  school  a  few  minutes,  and  she 
would  talk  to  him  about  his  studies. 

Accordingly,  when  school  was  dismissed, 
and  the  other  children  were  going  home,  Rollo 
came  and  stood  up  by  the  side  of  Miss  Mary's 
table.  She  was  putting  away  her  books  and 
papers. 

Rollo  stood  quietly  by  her  side,  wait- 
ing until  she  should  be  ready  to  speak  to 
him. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  31 

"Well,  Rollo,"  she  said,  at  length,  u how 
do  you  like  the  school  ?" 

"  Very  well  indeed,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  have  not  put  you  into  your  classes  yet," 
said  she,  "  because  I  thought  it  would  be  well 
for  you  to  have  one  day  to  learn  how  things  go 
on  in  the  school,  so  as  to  feel  a  little  at  home. 
What  does  your  father  wish  to  have  you 
study?" 

"I  don't  know  exactly,"  said  Rollo;  "I 
believe  he  does  not  want  to  have  me  to  take 
a  great  many  studies. 

"  Do  you  know  what  studies  he  does  wish 
to  have  you  attend  to?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"  Not  exactly,"  said  Rollo. 

Miss  Mary's  table  was  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  room  from  the  door,  and  as  she  sat  at  the 
table  her  face  was  turned  towards  the  door ; 
and  just  as  Rollo  was  trying  to  think  what  he 
had  heard  his  father  say  about  his  studies,  he 
observed  that  Miss  Mary  suddenly  rose,  look- 
ing towards  the  door.  Rollo  turned  round 
and  saw  that  there  was  a  woman  there  lead- 
ing in  a  little  girl  by  the  hand.  The  woman 
was  dressed  plainly,  and  had  a  handkerchief 
drawn  over  her  head  instead  of  a  bonnet. 
The  girl  was  a  very  wild-looking  little  thing. 
She  wore  a  coarse  green  gown,  darned  and 


32  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

mended  in  various  places.  A  small  straw 
bonnet,  a  good  deal  out  of  shape,  hung  back 
from  her  head,  and  her  hair  was  down  over 
her  eyes. 

The  little  girl  pushed  the  hair  back  from 
her  eyes  with  one  hand,  as  she  walked  along 
into  the  room  following  her  mother,  who  was 
drawing  her  in  by  the  other.  She  seemed 
afraid  to  come  in,  or  at  least  very  unwilling, 
from  some  cause  or  other. 

Miss  Mary  rose  and  was  just  going  to  speak 
to  the  woman,  when,  just  as  she  got  about  half 
way  across  the  roonij  the  little  girl  seemed 
determined  not  to  come  any  farther;  she 
pulled  her  hand  violently  away  from  her 
mother  and  ran  off  out  of  the  door. 

"  Dovey  ! "  said  the  woman,  turning  round 
suddenly  and  following  her,  "  Dovey,  here, 
come  back !  Come  back,  Dovey,  this  instant ! " 

While  thus  calling  the  girl  back,  the  wo- 
man had  followed  her  to  the  portico  before  the 
door.  Dovey  ran  until  she  had  got  to  a  safe 
distance  in  the  orchard,  and  then  stopped  and 
turned  round  and  looked  at  her  mother. 

"  Dovey  ! "  said  her  mother  again,  standing 
in  the  portico,  "  I  tell  you  to  come  directly  to 
me." 

Dovey  stood  still  looking  at  her  mother, 
but  made  no  answer. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  33 

"Mind,  this  minute,"  said  her  mother, 
stamping  with  her  foot. 

Dovey  very  coolly  sat  down  on  the  grass 
and  began  to  pick  buttercups  and  dandelions, 

By  this  time  Miss  Mary  had  followed  the 
woman  out  to  the  door,  Rollo  coming  behind 
her.  Miss  Mary  thought  the  girl  could  not 
have  been  very  properly  managed,  or  she 
would  not  thus '  disobey  her  mother.  She 
however  did  not  say  so.  She  smiled  and 
said, 

"  Your  little  girl  seems  afraid,  Mrs.  Brome." 

Mrs.  Brome  turned  first  to  Miss  Mary  and 
then  to  the  girl,  and  looked  excited  and  angry. 

"Afraid!"  said  she;  "she  is  ugly.  She 
is  so  wild  and  contrary,  that  I  can't  do  any- 
thing with  her.  I  was  going  to  bring  her  to 
your  school."  Then  she  turned  to  Dovey 
again,  and  addressed  her  in  a  more  soothing 
and  pleasant  tone. 

"  Come,  Dovey  dear,  that  is  a  good  girl ; 
come  now  and  see  Miss  Maiy ;  come  and  I'll 
give  you  a  piece  of  cake." 

"You  have  not  got  any  cake,"  said  Do- 
vey. 

"Yes  I  have,"  said  she,  "at  home,  and 
I'll  give  you  some  as  soon  as  we  get  home." 

But  Dovey  knew,  unfortunately,  that  there 


34  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

was  not  a  great  deal  of  dependence  to  be 
placed  upon  such  promises,  and  she  did  not 
move. 

"I  think  you  had  better  walk  in,  Mrs. 
Brome,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  and  sit  down: 
perhaps  she  will  come  in  by  and  by." 

"  No  she  won't,"  said  the  woman.  Then 
turning  round  again  towards  Dovey,  she 
stepped  out  from  the  door,  and  began  to  move 
towards  her,  with  a  very  resolute  air;  but 
Dovey  was  upon  her  feet  in  an  instant,  and 
began  to  skip  backwards  with  a  lightness  and 
agility  which  showed  at  once  that  all  pursuit 
would  be  fruitless.  Miss  Mary  then  repeated 
her  request  that  Mrs.  Brome  would  come  in, 
and  she  said  she  would  contrive  some  way  to 
get  Dovey  in  by  and  by. 

They  accordingly  walked  into  the  school- 
room, and  sat  down,  and  Mrs.  Brome  began 
to  tell  about  Dovey.  She  said  that  she  was 
heedless,  wild,  and  disobedient,  and  that  she 
wanted  Miss  Mary  to  take  her  into  her  school, 
and  see  if  she  could  not  make  a  good  girl  of 
her.  All  this  time  Rollo  sat  at  the  window 
looking  out.  Presently  he  saw  Dovey  beck- 
oning to  him  to  come  out  there.  Rollo  looked 
up  to  Miss  Mary. 

"  Yes,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "you  may  go  out 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  35 

if  you  would  like  to.  You  can  show  Dovey 
where  she  can  look  through  the  fence  and  see 
the  chickens." 

Rollo  went  to  the  door,  and  just  as  he  was 
going  out,  Miss  Mary  told  him  that  if  Dovey 
wanted  to  look  over  the  fence,  she  might  come 
and  help  him  carry  a  chair  out,  from  the 
school-room. 

When  Rollo  had  gone,  Mrs.  Brome  and 
Miss  Mary  talked  more  about  Dovey. 

"  When  do  you  want  her  to  begin?"  said 
Miss  Mary. 

"To-morrow  morning;  but  then  T  don't 
see  how  I  shall  make  her  come  to  school." 

"  Won't  she  come  if  you  tell  her  to?" 

"No,  she  don't  mind  me  at  all.  She 
plagues  me  almost  to  death,"  said  the  woman, 
with  a  deep  sigh. 

"  Seems  to  me,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  that 
her  name  does  not  correspond  with  her  cha- 
racter very  well.  1  never  heard  the  name 
Dovey  before." 

"No,"  said  the  woman.  "I  made  that 
name  for  her,  when  she  was  a  baby  ;  she 
wras  such  a  sweet,  beautiful  baby.  But  it  is 
all  altered  now." 

A  few  minutes  after  this  Rollo  came  gently 
in  at  the  door,  and  told  Miss  Mary  that  they 
should  like  to  take  the  chair. 


36  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"Where  is  Dovey?"  said  Miss  Mary, 

"  She  is  just  out  here,  by  the  door,"  said 
Rollo. 

Mrs.  Brome  was  going  to  jump  up  and  go 
right  out  to  bring  her  in,  but  Miss  Mary  told 
her  she  had  better  sit  still,  and  let  her  alone 
at  present.  Then  Miss  Mary  took  a  chair 
and  carried  it  out  to  the  portico,  and  said, 

"  Here,  Dovey,  you  can  take  hold  here,  at 
the  legs,  and  Rollo  at  the  other  side,  and  so 
you  can  carry  it  very  easily." 

Dovey  looked  a  little  shy,  but  she  came  up 
at  length  cautiously  and  took  hold  of  the 
chair ;  and  she  and  Rollo  carried  it  along. 
Miss  Mary  walked  along  with  them  a  step  or 
two,  and  asked  them  if  they  would  be  kind 
enough  to  count  the  turkeys  in  the  yard,  and 
tell  her  how  many  there  were,  so  that  she 
could  tell  whether  they  were  all  safe. 

"  How  many  ought  there  to  be?"  said  Do- 
vey. 

"Four,"  said  Miss  Mary. 

Then  Miss  Mary  returned  to  the  school- 
room, to  continue  her  conversation  with  Mrs. 
Brome,  while  the  two  children  hurried  along 
to  count  the  turkeys. 

After  some  time  the  children  saw  Miss 
Mary  coming  out  towards  them,  and  as  Do- 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  37 

vey  was  now  not  afraid  of  her,  she  did  not 
run  away.  As  soon  as  Miss  Mary  came  near, 
she  said, 

"  Come,  children,  now  you  may  carry  in  the 
chair,  and  put  it  in  the  school-room.  Dovey, 
your  mother  has  gone  home,  but  she  says 
you  are  coming  to  my  school  to-morrow,  and 
I  am  glad  of  it.  If  you  will  come  early  to- 
morrow morning,  I  will  let  you  go  with  me 
and  feed  the  turkeys." 

"Yes,  ma'am,"  said  Dovey,  "they  are  all 
here,  all  four  of  them." 

"And,  Rollo,"  said  Miss  Mary,  as  she  fol- 
lowed them  along  towards  the  school-room, 
u  it  is  time  for  you  to  go  home ;  you  can  ask 
your  father  what  studies  he  wishes  you  to 
take  and  tell  me  to-morrow." 

So  Rollo  and  Dovey  put  away  the  chair, 
and  then  each  went  home.  Rollo  thought 
that,  as  he  had  been  already  detained  some 
time,  he  had  better  not  stop  to  see  the  bird's 
nest,  but  put  it  off  till  the  next  day. 

Dovey  did  not  refuse  to  come  the  next 
morning,  as  her  mother  had  feared;  she 
wanted  to  help  feed  the  turkeys.  In  fact  that 
was  Miss  Mary's  secret  plan  in  telling  her 
about  the  turkeys.  Miss  Mary  kept  her 
promise  about  letting  her  feed  them,  and  then 
4 


38  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

led  her  into  the  school-room.  Some  of  the 
scholars  had  come  already,  and  were  seated 
at  their  desks,  in  various  parts  of  the  room, 
preparing  their  lessons.  Miss  Mary  went  up 
to  her  table,  and  took  her  seat.  Dovey  threw 
her  bonnet  down  upon  the  floor  and  followed. 

"Oh,  Dovey,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "you 
must  not  throw  your  bonnet  down  there. 
There  is  a  nail  for  you ;  you  may  hang  it 
upon  that." 

Dovey  went  back  and  took  up  her  bonnet 
and  put  it  upon  the  nail,  and  then  came  back 
to  Miss  Mary's  table. 

"  Tell  me  the  whole  of  your  name,"  said 
Miss  Mary,  laying  down  at  the  same  time  a 
penknife,  with  which  she  had  been  sharpen- 
ing a  pen. 

"  Dovey  Brome,"  replied  the  new  scholar, 
taking  up  the  knife,  at  the  same  time  begin- 
ning to  cut  the  table  with  it. 

"You  must  not  touch  the  knife,  Dovey," 
said  Miss  Mary,  and  she  gently  took  it  out  of 
her  hand,  and  laid  it  down  again.  "How 
old  are  you,  Dovey?"  she  asked  again,  after 
having  written  down  her  name. 

"  I  shall  be  eleven  next  June." 

"It  is  June  now,"  said  Miss  Mary;  "do 
you  mean  June  of  this  year  or  of  next  year." 

"  The  next  year." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  39 

<:  Then  you  are  ten  now?" 

"Yes."  said  Dovey,   "a  few  days  ago." 

Miss  Mary  smiled  a  little,  but  Dovey  did 
not  know  what  for.  She  leaned  her  elbows 
upon  the  table,  and  put  her  cheeks  in  her 
hands,  and  then,  a  moment  after,  she  took  a 
pen  out  of  the  inkstand  before  her,  and  began 
to  mark  upon  the  back  of  her  hand. 

"Why,  Dovey,"  said  Miss  Mary,  as  soon 
as  she  looked  up  and  saw  her,  "  what  are 
you  doing?  See  how  you  have  inked  your 
hand." — "  Stop,  stop,"  she  said  again  sud- 
denly when  she  saw  that  Dovey  was  going 
to  wipe  her  hand  upon  her  gown ;  but  it  was 
too  late.  The  thing  was  done  in  an  instant, 
and  the  ink  stain  was  spread  equally  over  her 
hand  and  her  dress. 

Miss  Mary  looked  at  her  a  moment  in 
silence,  and  thought  that  she  probably  had  a 
very  hard  task  before  her,  to  cure  that  girl  of 
all  her  faults.  She,  however,  said  nothing  to 
her,  but  presently  asked  one  of  the  older 
scholars  to  go  out  and  show  Dovey  the  way 
to  the  pump,  and  let  her  wash  her  hand  as 
well  as  she  could,  and  then  to  come  in  with 
her. 

Miss  Mary  thought  it  would  be  hardly  safe 
for  her  to  sit  with  any  of  the  ether  scholars, 


40  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

and  so  she  gave  her  a  seat  by  herself,  and 
Dovey  was  just  going  to  it,  when  Rollo  came 
in.  Miss  Mary  asked  her  where  her  books 
were.  She  said  she  had  brought  them  in  a 
great  green  satchel,  but.  did  not  know  where 
she  had  put  it.  Rollo  said  he  believed  he  saw 
it  out  in  the  orchard,  and  he  went  out  to  show 
Dovey  where.  She  then  remembered  that 
she  threw  it  down  there,  when  she  came  in 
the  morning.  She  took  it  up  and  walked 
along  with  Rollo,  tossing  her  bag  of  books 
along  before  her  upon  the  grass,  and  then  pick- 
ing it  up  as  she  came  to  it.  Rollo  asked  her  if 
she  was  not  afraid  she  should  hurt  her  books, 
but  she  said  she  did  not  care. 

At  length  she  came  into  the  room,  and  was 
bringing  her  bag  along,  when  Rollo,  who 
came  behind  her,  said, 

'•Dovey,  what's  that?"  pointing  down  to 
the  floor. 

It  was  a  drop  of  ink  coming  from  her  bag. 

"  I  expect  you  have  broken  your  inkstand,*3 
said  Rollo. 

Dovey  looked  careless  and  unconcerned, 
but  said  nothing.  Miss  Mary,  who  had  come 
to  the  place,  asked  Rollo  if  he  would  carry 
the  bag  to  the  door,  and  take  all  the  books 
out  carefully,  and  see. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  41 

Miss  Mary  had  observed  that  Rollo  was  a 
very  neat,  careful  boy,  and  so  she  entrusted 
him  with  this  business.  She  told  him  not  to 
touch  the  pieces  of  the  inkstand,  if  it  was 
broken,  but  to  come  and  tell  her.  She  let 
Dovey  go  out  with  him,  but  told  her  that  she 
must  not  touch  the  bag,  but  must  let  Rollo  do 
it  all  alone,  unless  he  should  want  her  to  help 
him. 

So  Rollo  carried  the  bag  out  very  carefully. 
Several  other  boys  who  were  there  wanted  to 
go  and  do  it.  but  Miss  Mary  had  most  confi- 
dence in  Rollo,  as  a  careful  and  tidy  boy,  and 
Rollo  was  very  glad  that  he  had  taken  pains 
to  be  neat  and  careful,  so  as  to  acquire  such 
a  character. 

He  took  the  bag  out  upon  the  grass,  and 
asked  Dovey  to  hold  it  open  for  him.  He 
then  'looked  in,  and  carefully  took  out  one 
book  after  another,  and  at  last,  when  he  got 
near  the  bottom  of  the  bag,  he  aSked  Dovey 
what  that  was  done  up  in  a  paper. 

"  I  expect  it  is  my  gingerbread,"  said  Do- 
vey. 

Rollo  then  put  in  his  hand  and  carefully 

drew  out  a  small  parcel  wrapped  up   in   a 

newspaper.     He  unrolled  it  slowly,  and  took 

out   a   piece  of  gingerbread,  half  soaked  in 

b*  4* 


42  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

ink.  "  You  must  not  touch  it,  Dovey,"  said 
he,  and  he  laid  it  down  upon  the  grass. 

"  No,  the  inkstand  is  not  broken,  only  the 
stopper  has  come  out,"  saidRollo  again,  look- 
ing down  into  the  bag,  as  Dovey  held  it  open. 
"  How  shall  we  get  it?" 

"  Put  your  hand  in  and  take  it  right  out," 
said  Dovey.     "  Here,  I  will." 

"No,  no,"  saidRollo,  "  it  is  all  inky." 

"  Turn  the  bag  bottom  upwards,  and  let  it 
fall  out,"  said  one  of  the  children,  who  was 
standing  by,  looking  on. 

Rollo  accordingly  laid  the  bag  down  upon 
the  grass,  and  took  hold  of  the  two  corners, 
at  the  bottom,  where  it  was  not  inked,  and 
lifted  it  up.  A  strong  round  glass  inkstand, 
wet  inside  and  out  with  ink,  fell  out ;  and 
immediately  after,  a  stopper,  with  a  piece  of 
brown  paper  wrapped  around  it,  all  completely 
blackened  and  wet. 

"  There,"  saidRollo,  tossing  the  bag  down 
upon  the  grass,  and  looking  carefully  at  all 
his  fingers.  "  There,  I  have  got  them  all  out, 
and  have  not  inked  my  fingers  in  the  least." 

Just  then,  the  children  heard  a  bell  ring  in 
the  school-room,  which  they  knew  was  to  call 
them  all  in. 

"  Oh  dear,"  said  Rollo,  "  what  shall  1  do? 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  43 

here  are  all  the  books  and  things  lying  on 
the  grass,  and  now  the  bell  is  ringing."  The 
children  were  all  walking  away,  and  one  of 
them  looked  round  and  said  he  had  better 
leave  them  and  come  in  directly.  So  Rollo 
walked  along,  Dovey  following  him.  He 
went  into  the  school-room,  and  walked  up  to 
Miss  Mary's  table,  and  told  her  that  he  had 
taken  the  things  all  out  of  the  bag,  and  they 
were  all  scattered  about  upon  the  grass. 

"  Let  me  look  at  your  fingers,"  said  Miss 
Mary. 

Rollo  held  his  hand  up. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Miss  Mary.  "  After  the 
school  is  opened  you  may  go  and  get  the 
books  that  are  not  inked  and  bring  them  in, 
and  put  them  upon  Dovey' s  desk." 

Miss  Mary  read  the  Bible  and  offered 
prayer,  and  then  she  went  out  and  brought  in 
a  desk  which  was  not  so  handsome  as  the 
others  in  the  room.  It  Avas  old  and  unpainted. 
She  placed  a  chair  behind  it,  and  led  Dovey 
to  it,  telling  her  that  that  would  be  her  seat 
for  the  present.  "  I  shall  give  you  a  prettier 
seat  by  and  by,"  she  added,  "if  you  are  a 
good  girl."  But  Dovey  did  not  seem  much 
inclined  to  be  a  good  girl.  She  was  restless, 
noisy,  and  idle.   She  tumbled  all  her  books  into 


44  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

her  desk  in  confusion,  and  when  she  wanted 
any  one,  she  pushed  them  about  until  she 
found  it.  She  had  a  trick  of  sitting  with,  her 
chair  tipped  forward  on  its  two  front  legs,  and 
once  she  leaned  forward  so  far,  that  they  slip- 
ped back,  and  she  came  down  upon  the  floor, 
with  a  great  deal  of  noise.  At  this  the  scholars 
all  laughed,  and  she  looked  very  much 
ashamed;  and  for  a  few  minutes  after  this 
she  was  quiet,  but  she  soon  forgot  it,  and  was 
tipping  her  chair  forward  as  before. 

Now  it  happened  that  her  seat  was  not 
very  far  from  Henry's,  the  boy  who  sat  next 
to  Rollo;  and  she  tried  to  make  him  play. 
Henry  was  rather  disposed  to  be  a  good  boy, 
but  he  could  not  help  laughing  at  the  droll 
faces  she  made  up  at  him.  At  last  Dovey 
snapped  a  paper  ball  at  him,  and  he  picked 
it  up  and  snapped  it  back  at  her.  Miss 
Mary  was  all  this  time  at  the  other  side 
of  the  room,  and  Henry  looked  up  every 
moment  to  see  whether  she  was  looking  at 
them,  and  he  thought  she  was  not.  But  he 
was  mistaken.  Miss  Mary  saw  the  whole. 
It  very  often  happens,  when  boys  and  girls 
are  at  play  at  school,  that  the  teacher  knows 
all  about  it,  while  they  do  not  suppose  she  is 
looking  at  them  at  all.     Henry  once  looked 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  45 

round  to  Rollo,  to  get  him  to  see  what  Dovey 
was  doing,  but  Rollo  shook  his  head  and 
went  on  with  a  sum  which  he  was  doing 
upon  his  slate. 

Miss  Mary  saw  all  this,  and  was  very  glad 
to  observe  that  Rollo  was  a  good,  faithful  boy, 
and  she  was  sorry  to  see  Henry  doing  so 
wrong.  But  she  said  nothing  then.  Henry 
felt  guilty  and  unhappy,  and  pretty  soon 
began  to  study  again. 

At  length  the  time  for  recess  arrived,  and 
when  they  got  out  into  the  orchard,  some 
of  the  children  proposed  to  go  down  to  the 
spring  and  get  a  drink.  "  You  go  in,  Henry, 
and  ask  Miss  Mary  if  we  may,"  said  one. 

Now  this  spring  was  down  in  a  cool, 
shady  glen,  where  the  water  came  boiling  up 
among  some  rocks  in  a  very  beautiful  manner; 
and  sometimes,  when  the  day  was  warm,  the 
children  used  to  go  down  there  with  a  tin 
dipper,  to  sit  on  the  stones  around  the  spring, 
and  drink  the  cool  water.  In  such  cases 
they  were  required  to  walk  down  slowly 
and  quietly,  and  one  of  the  boys  was  gene- 
rally appointed  dipper-master.  It  was  the 
duty  of  the  dipper-master  to  go  into  the 
kitchen  of  the  house  and  borrow  the  dipper. 
Then  he  was  to  walk  along  with  the  others, 


46  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

and  when  they  got  to  the  spring,  he  was  to 
dip  up  the  water,  and  hand  it  round  to  the 
others ;  or  he  was  to  let  them  take  the  dip- 
per themselves,  if  he  chose,  by  turns ;  but  it 
must  be  as  he  should  direct.  This  was  to 
avoid  all  disputes  and  disorder.  Then  it  was 
his  business,  too,  to  see  to  it  that  the  dipper 
was  brought  up  and  carried  back  safely  into 
the  kitchen. 

So  Henry  and  Rollo  and  several  of  the 
other  children  went  in  and  asked  Miss  Mary 
if  she  was  willing  that  chey  should  go  down 
to  the  spring.  Miss  Mary  consented,  and 
appointed  Henry  the  dipper-master.  Then 
away  they  went,  and  while  Henry  went  to 
borrow  the  dipper,  the  rest  waited  at  the  door. 

In  a  few  minutes  they  were  all  walking 
along,  Henry  with  his  dipper  at  the  head,  out 
through  a  back  gate  which  led  behind  the  gar- 
den. Here  they  came  to  a  little  wood,  with 
a  narrow  path  leading  into  it.  Rollo  was 
next  to  Henry,  then  one  or  two  other  girls, 
and  at  last  came  Dovey.  She  did  not  set  out 
with  them  at  first ;  she  said  she  did  not  want 
to  go; — she  could  get  water  enough  at  the 
pump ;  but  when  she  saw  them  all  walking 
off  so  pleasantly  together,  she  ran  after  them, 
swinging   her  bonnet  round  and  round  her 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  49 

finger  by  one  of  the  strings.  At  length  the 
string  broke  and  the  bonnet  flew  out  upon  the 
grass ;  but  Dovey  left  it  and  ran  on.  So  it 
happened  that  when  they  got  to  the  spring 
she  was  last. 

Henry  dipped  up  some  water  and  gave  it 
to  Rollo.  Rollo  handed  it  along  to  one  of  the 
girls,  and  she  drank  some.  While  she  was 
drinking,  Dovey  came  up  and  took  hold  of  the 
dipper,  and  said, 

"  Let  me  taste  of  it' 

"No,"  said  Henry,  coming  up;  "I  am 
dipper-master." 

"I  don't  care  for  that,"  said  Dovey;  "I 
want  to  drink." 

"No,"  said  Henry,  taking  hold  of  the 
other  side  of  the  dipper. 

"  Let  go  !"  said  Dovey,  stamping  with  her 
foot.  ' 

"Let  her  have  it,  Henry;  I  would,"  said 
Rollo. 

The  reason  why  Rollo  advised  Henry  to 
let  her  have  it  was,  that  his  father  and  mother 
had  always  taught  him  never  to  attempt  to 
do  any  thing  by  violence,  and  never  to  resist 
violence  from  another.  Henry  accordingly  let 
go  of  the  dipper,  though  he  did  it  very  reluc- 
tantly, saying. 


50  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"  Why,  Miss  Mary  said  I  might  be  dipper- 
master.  You  have  no  right  to  take  it  away," 
said  he  to  Dovey,  who  went  on  drinking,  and 
eyeing  Henry  over  the  edge  of  the  dipper. 

"Yes  I  have,"  said  Dovey,  stopping  to 
take  breath.  "  I  have  a  right  to  drink  when- 
ever I  have  got  a  mind  to."  She  then  drank 
a  little  again. 

"  You  said  just  now,  before  we  came  down, 
that  you  did  not  want  any  water,"  said  one 
of  the  girls  gently. 

"Well,  there,  take  your  water,"  said  Dovey; 
and  she  threw  what  was  left  in  the  dipper 
over  the  children,  and  turned  round  and  ran, 
carrying  the  dipper  away  with  her. 

The  children  cried,  "Oh  what  a  shame," 
and  brushed  the  water  off  of  each  other's 
clothes,  an^l  wiped  their  faces.  Then  they 
began  to  walk  slowly  towards  the  house,  and 
when  they  came  out  of  the  woods  they  saw 
Dovey  swinging  upon  the  back  gate  with  the 
dipper  in  her  hand. 

"There!  she  is  swinging  upon  the  gate," 
said  one  of  the  girls. 

"  Perhaps,  however,"  said  Lucy,  "  she  does 
not  know  it  is  against  the  rule." 

"  Dovey,"  said  Henry,  aloud,  as  soon  as 
they  got  within  hearing,  "  give  me  the  dipper ; 
I  must  carry  it  back  into  the  kitchen." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  51 

Dovey  did  not  answer;  she  went  on  swing- 
ing back  and  forth  upon  the  gate. 

'  Come,  Dovey,  give  it  to  me,"  repeated 
Henry,  holding  out  his  hand  and  advancing 
towards  her.  But  Dovey  was,  unfortunately, 
not  one  of  those  girls  who  easily  give  up 
when  they  are  doing  wrong.  She  jumped  off 
of  the  gate,  passed  through,  and  then  shut 
and  fastened  it,  with  the  hasp,  and  held  it,  as 
if  she  was  not  going  to  let  them  come  through. 

Just  then  the  bell  rang  for  the  end  of  the  re- 
cess ;  and  the  children  began  to  be  very  uneasy. 
One  very  little  girl  began  to  cry.  Lucy  told 
her  not  to  cry,  for  she  said  that  Miss  Mary 
would  not  blame  them  for  being  late,  when 
she  knew  all  about  it. 

"  But  how  shall  we  get  back  at  all  ?  "  said 
the  little  girl. 

"  Oh,  Miss  Mary  will  come  down  pretty 
soon,  to  see  where  we  are,"  said  Lucy. 

As  soon  as  Dovey  heard  this,  she  knew 
that  it  would  not  be  safe  for  her  to  stay  there 
any  longer,  so  she  let  go  of  the  gate,  threw 
the  dipper  away  over  into  the  garden  as  far 
as  she  could  throw  it,  and  ran  off  towards 
the  school-room. 

The  children  then  unfastened  the  gate, 
and  all  passed  through   and  walked  along. 


52  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

They  stopped  a  minute  while  Rollo  picked 
up  Dovey's  bonnet,  which  was  lying  by  the 
side  of  the  path,  upon  the  grass,  and  then 
they  all  went  into  the  school-room. 


KOLLO  AT   SCHOOL.  53 


DOVEYISM. 

That  is,  they  all  went  into  the  school-room 
except  Dovey  herself.  She  knew  that  she 
had  done  very  wrong,  and  was  afraid  to  go 
back.  So  she  ran  off  home.  Miss  Mary 
perceived  that  there  had  been  some  difficulty, 
but  she  made  no  inquiry  about  it  at  first,  and 
the  children  did  not  wish  to  make  complaints 
of  Dovey,  and  so  they  all  went  to  their  seats 
and  said  nothing. 

Henry  was  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  he  must  do  about  the  dipper.  It  was 
his  duty  to  bring  it  safely  back,  and  as  it  had 
been  thrown  over  the  garden  fence,  where  he 
could  not  get  it,  he  thought  he  ought  to  go 
and  tell  Miss  Mary.  He  accordingly  went 
to  her  table,  and  said,  in  a  low  voice,  that  he 
had  not  brought  back  the  dipper. 

'•Where  is  it?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"It  is  over  in  the  garden." 

"  How  came  it  over  there?" 

"Dovey  threw  it  over." 

"Where  is  Dovey?" 

"  I  believe  she  has  gone  home.7' 
5* 


54  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Miss  Mary,  after  a  mo- 
ment's pause;  "  you  may  go  out  and  get  it. 
You  may  ask  any  one  you  please  to  go  out 
with  you  and  help  3^011  rind  it." 

Henry  asked  Rollo  to  go  with  him.  They 
went  out  through  the  front  gate,  into  the  road 
before  the  house,  and  thence  into  the  yard  on 
the  other  side.  They  saw  a  great  many 
things  which  attracted  their  attention,  but 
they  did  not  stop  to  look  at  them.  A  large 
boy  was  coming  across  the  yard  with  a 
wheelbarrow.  He  called  out  to  them  in  a 
rough  voice  to  go  back ;  but  when  they  told 
him  that  Miss  Mary  sent  them,  he  said,  "  Oh, 
very  well." 

In  the  garden  there  were  a  great  many  very 
pleasant  walks,  and  trees,  and  flowers.  At  first 
they  did  not  know  where  to  look  for  the  dip- 
per; but  presently  went  and  peeped  through 
the  fence  to  see  where  Dovey  stood  when  she 
threw  it,  and  then  they  knew  in  what  direc- 
tion they  must  look.  At  last  they  found  it  in 
the  midst  of  some  currant  bushes. 

"  How  I  should  like  to  stay  here  a  little 
while,"  said  Henry,  as  they  walked  along 
the  alley  towards  the  house. 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo,  "if  we  only  had  leave." 

"Perhaps  Miss  Mary  will  let  us  come  in 
here  some  time,"  said  Henry. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  55 

When  they  reached  the  house,  Henry  went 
in  and  returned  the  dipper  to  its  place,  and 
then  he  and  Rollo  went  back  to  school. 

Miss  Mary  rang  .the  bell  for  the  children  to 
put  away  their  books  earlier  than  usual  that 
afternoon,  and  then,  when  the  room  was  still, 
she  said  to  the  children  that  she  believed  that 
there  was  some  difficulty  in  the  recess,  and 
she  asked  that  if  any  of  them  were  willing  to 
tell  her  freely  all  about  it,  they  would  hold 
up  their  hands. 

All  the  children  who  went  down  to  the 
spring  then  held  up  their  hands. 

"I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  are  willing," 
said  Miss  Mary,-  looking  around  upon  them 
all ;  "  and  now  I  don't  know  who  to  call  upon, 
for  there  are  very  few  children  who  know 
how  to  tell  such  a  story  properly.  It  is  very 
hard.'-' 

"Is  it V  said  a  little  boy  on  a  front  seat. 

"Yes,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "very  hard,  as 
we  shall  see.  Francis,  you  may  try ;  but 
remember,  I  want  an  honest  and  an  impartial 
account." 

Francis  was  on  the  whole  a  pretty  good 
boy,  but  he  was  very  much  displeased  with 
Dovey,  and  Miss  Mary  saw  very  plainly,  by 
his  manner  of  telling  the  story,  that  he  was 


56  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

not  by  any  means  impartial.  He  stated  the 
facts  pretty  correctly,  but  he  seemed  very 
eager  to  throw  all  the  blame  upon  Dovey,  and 
it  happened  in  this  case  that  she  deserved  it. 
Still  it  would  have  been  better  for  him  to  have 
related  the  occurrence  in  a  more  calm  and 
quiet  manner. 

When  he  concluded,  Miss  Mary  asked  Rollo 
to  tell  the  story,  and  he  did  so.  His  account 
agreed  very  fully  with  Francis's.  Then  Miss 
Mary  asked  the  children  if  they  all  thought 
that  these  two  accounts  were  correct,  and  fair 
accounts,  and  they  all  held  up  their  hands, 
meaning  that  they  did. 

After  a  short  pause,  Miss  Mary  addressed 
the  scholars  thus  : — 

"I  am  sorry  that  Dovey  is  not  here,  for  I 
make  it  a  rule  never  to  decide  against  children 
until  I  hear  what  they  have  to  say  them- 
selves. We  will  wait,  therefore,  until  to-mor- 
row, and  then  I  will  ask  Dovey  for  her  ac- 
count of  the  affair. " 

The  children  all  thought  that  this  was  un- 
necessary forbearance;  though  they  made  no 
objection  to  waiting.  After  school,  however, 
they  came  around  Miss  Mary's  table,  and 
began  to  talk  about  it  again. 

"Miss   Mary,"  said  Henry,  "I  wish  you 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  57 

would  send  Dovey  away  from  school.  She 
spoils  all  our  play." 

"She  is  so  cross  and  selfish,"  said  Fran- 
cis. 

"And  then  she  plays  in  school,"  said 
Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Henry,  "she  tried  to  make 
me  play  to-day." 

"  And  she  has  been  marking  all  over  her 
desk,"  said  a  little  girl,  who  happened  to  sit 
near  her. 

"Where?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

The  children  went  to  Dovey' s  desk,  and 
Miss  Mary  followed.  The  little  girl  lifted  up 
the  lid,  and  Miss  Mary  saw  a  number  of  rude 
marks  and  drawings  on  the  lid  inside.  The 
books  were  all  tumbled  in  in  confusion,  and 
crumbs  of  gingerbread  were  scattered  about 
the  bottom  of  the  desk.  In  one  corner  was  a 
paper  box,  which  she  had  made ;  there  were 
flies  buzzing  in  it,  which  she  had  caught  and 
imprisoned  there. 

Miss  Mary  looked  at  all  these  things,  but 
said  nothing,  and  presently  walked  back  to 
her  table  again. 

"Well,  children,  we  will  not  talk  any 
more  about  Dovey  to-night ;  I  will  consider 
what  to  do  to-morrow,  after  I  have  seen  her. 


6*8  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

But  I  am  in  hopes  that  her  coming  to  school 
will  be  the  means  of  doing  a  great  deal  of 
good." 

"  "  Good  ! "  said  several  of  the  children  with 
much  surprise;   "  what  good?" 

"  In  showing  you  how  bad  such  character 
and  conduct  is,  when  it  is  fully  developed; 
and  thus  leading  you  to  avoid  it." 

'•'  Why,  Miss  Mary,"  said  a  little  girl,  "  we 
are  not  like  Dovey." 

lJ  Not  so  bad  as  Dovey,  any  of  you,  but 
still  there  was  a  good  deal  of  Doveyism  in 
the  school  before  she  came." 

The  children  looked  at  one  another  with  a 
smile ;  many  of  them  did  not  know  exactly 
what  Miss  Mary  meant. 

"  Now,  for  example,  one  trait  in  such  a 
character  as  Dovey' s  is  disorder.  Now  if  I 
were  to  go  all  about  the  room,  and  look  into 
every  desk,  and  examine  the  condition  of 
them,  I  think  I  should  find  considerable  Do- 
veyism" 

Miss  Mary  smiled  pleasantly  as  she  said 
this,  and  the  children  proposed  that  she 
should  go  around  and  see.  She  said  she 
would  look  at  the  desks  of  those  who  were 
present,  and  they  accordingly  all  walked  along 
together.     They  came  first  to  Henry's  desk, 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  59 

and  upon  opening  it  they  found  that  it  ap- 
peared in  pretty  good  order,  but  there  were 
a  good  many  crumbs  upon  the  bottom  of  it, 
and  Miss  Mary  reached  her  hand  into  one 
of  the  back  corners  and  lifted  up  a  slate,  and 
found  under  it  a  pile  of  small  books,  old  pa- 
pers, pens,  &c. 

"  There  is  a  little  Doveyism"  said  Miss 
Mary,  with  a  smile. 

"Well,  I  did  not  know  what  to  do  with 
them,"  said  Henry. 

"  If  you  had  thought  a  moment  you  would 
have  known  that  the  crumbs  might  be  brushed 
up,  and  the  old  pens  and  papers  thrown  away. 
I  think  we  must  call  it  Doveyisnt.^ 

"Now  look  at  Rollo's  desk,"  said  Lucy, 
opening  the  lid.  Rollo's  was  in  beautiful 
order ;  but  it  was  partly  because  his  mother 
had  told  him  exactly  how  to  keep  things  in 
order,  and  partly  because  he  had  been  in 
school  only  a  day  or  two,  and  his  things  had 
not  got  disarranged. 

"  That  looks  very  well,"  said  Miss  Mary, 
'{but  I  can  judge  better  of  Rollo's  character 
for  order  a  fortnight  hence." 

As  they  passed  along  the  room,  from  desk 
to  desk,  the  scholars  found  much  more  disor- 
der than  they  had  expected.     In  some  cases 


60  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

they  found  books  with  the  leaves  tumbled, 
and  the  corners  and  edges  curled  up.  The 
first  example  of  this  kind  that  they  came  to, 
was  at  a  boy's  desk  named  John.  His  desk 
was  in  pretty  good  order,  only  there  was  a 
spelling  book  open  in  the  middle  of  it,  with 
the  leaves  curled  up  and  the  corners  doubled 
down,  and  tattered  and  torn  so  much  that  it 
immediately  attracted  their  attention. 

"Why,  John,"  said  Miss  Mary,  " here's 
Doveyism" 

"  But,  Miss  Mary,"  said  John,  looking  up 
to  her  very  earnestly,  as  if  he  had  a  perfectly 
good  ground  of  defence,  "  I  cannot  make 
my  leaves  stay  out  straight.  I  have  pressed 
them  and  pressed  them :  and  now  my  book 
has  got  so  bad  that  it  will  not  stay  shut." 

"  Do  you  know  what  makes  the  leaves 
curl  up  so?"  asked  Miss  Mary. 

"  Oh,  they  curl  up  themselves,"  said  John. 

"  No,"  said  Miss  Mary  ;  "your  elbows  are 
the  rogues."  She  then  sat  down  at  the  desk, 
and  held  the  book  open  before  her  and  began 
to  lean  forward  upon  it,  in  an  awkward  and 
indolent  manner,  as  children  often  do  at 
school,  and  showed  John  that  that  was  the 
way  the  corners  of  the  leaves  were  doubled 
over.  John  looked  rather  foolish,  and  the 
rest  of  the  children  laughed. 


R0LL0   AT    SCHOOL.  61 

She  then  told  John,  that  if  he  would  always 
be  careful  to  keep  his  hook  in  its  proper  place 
upon  the  desk,  and  not  lean  forward  upon  it, 
or  rest  his  elbows  upon  it,  he  would  find 
there  would  be  no  more  dog's  ears  in  it. 

"I'll  try,"  said  John ;  "  but  what  shall  I  do 
with  all  these  that  are  already  made  ?  I  wish 
my  father  would  buy  me  a  new  book." 

"You  will  soon  get  by  those,  to  a  new 
psrt  of  the  book,  and  if  you  press  them  all 
down  smooth  every  rrTght,  the  leaves  will 
soon  come  straight  again.  But  you  will  find 
it  rather  harder  than  you  suppose  to  avoid 
making  more.  You  will  not  leave  off  the 
habit  all  at  once,  I  am  afraid." 

"Are  Dovey's  books  so?"  asked  one  of  the 
children. 

"I  suppose  so,"  said  Miss  Mary. 

One  of  the  children  then  went  to  Dovey's 
desk  and  took  out  a  book  or  two  to  see,  and 
brought  them  to  Miss  Mary.  They  were  full 
of  dog's  ears,  ink  spots,  and  tattered  leaves. 
Miss  Mary  and  the  scholars  all  looked  at 
them  in  silence,  the  children  all  secretly  re- 
solving to  smooth  out  every  curled  leaf  in 
their  books  as  soon  as  possible,  and  to  take 
special  care  not  to  make  any  more. 

Presently  they  came  to  a  desk  where  a 
6 


62  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

pleasant  little  girl  sat,  and  as  the  party  ap- 
proached it  she  seemed  to  be  trying  to  cover 
up  a  long  hole  in  the  green  baize  on  the  top 
of  it  with  her  hand.  As  the  scholars  were 
opening  the  lid,  Miss  Mary  held  it  down  to 
look  at  the  baize,  saying, 

"  But  stop  a  minute;  what  is  this  hole?" 

'•"Why,  Miss  Mary,"  said  the  little  girl, 
somewhat  confused,  "I  cut  that  with  a 
knife  yesterday.  I  was  in  a  hurry  to  cut 
some  paper.  I  did  not  think  it  would  come 
through,  but  it  did,  and  made  that  ugly  hole." 

"Heedlessness,"  said  Miss  Mary.  "That 
is  a  very  important  trait  in  the  Dovey  char- 
acter. Dovey  girls  are  always  doing  some 
mischief  from  mere  heedlessness,  as  well  as 
other  mischief  from  design.  They  upset  their 
inkstands,  they  cut  their  ringers,  they  tear 
their  clothes  by  climbing,  or  get  into  the  mud 
by  running  along  and  not  minding  where 
they  are  going,  they  scratch  the  furniture,  and 
bring  mud  into  the  house,  and  break  glass, 
and  hurt  themselves  and  one  another,  and  do 
a  thousand  other  heedless  things.  Now,  chil- 
dren, don't  you  think  you  are  sometimes 
guilty  of  some  such  things?" 

Miss  Mary  asked  the  question  with  a  pleas- 
ant countenance,  but  the   children   did   not 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  63 

answer.  They  looked  a  little  confounded. 
They  felt  guilty,  and  saw  that  they  were  all 
sometimes  much  more  like  Dovey  than  they 
had  supposed. 

"  Dovey' s  heedlessness,"  continued  Miss 
Mary,  '-when  she  tossed  her  bag  along  be- 
fore her  upon  the  ground,  with  an  inkstand 
full  of  ink  in  it,  may  have  been  greater  in 
degree  than  you  commonly  manifest,  but  it 
is  precisely  the  same  in  kind." 

"  Well,  but,  Miss  Mary,"  said  Rollo,  "  there 
are  certainly  some  things  which  Dovey  does, 
that  we  don't  do  at  all." 

"  What  things  V  said  Miss  Mary. 

At  first  Rollo  could  not  answer,  but  pres- 
ently he  and  some  of  the  other  children  men- 
tioned several  of  the  more  gross  cases  of  her 
selfishness  and  rudeness.  Miss  Mary  ad- 
mitted that  the  other  scholars  did  not  do  any 
thing  quite  so  bad,  but  yet  she  called  a  great 
many  cases  to  their  minds  in  which  they  had 
shown  the  same  spirit,  though  they  had  not 
exercised  it  in  so  great  a  degree.  She  showed 
them  also  that  it  was  this  spirit  and  charac- 
ter which  was  wrong,  and  that  if  it  was  not 
w-holly  changed  it  had  a  tendency  to  grow 
worse  and  worse,  until  they  should  become 
ae  bad  as  Dovey. 


64  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

The  scholars  all  listened  attentively  and 
with  very  serious  looks  to  what  Miss  Mary 
said,  and  when,  at  last,  she  told  them  it  was 
time  for  them  to  go  home,  they  all  went  away, 
determining  that  the  next  day  they  would  be 
trery  careful  not  to  be  like  Dovey  in  any 
thing  at  all.  Henry  determined  that  he 
would  put  his  desk  in  order  the  first  thing  in 
the  morning,  and  engaged  Rollo  to  show  him 
how. 

The  children  saw  no  more  of  Dovey  for 
two  or  three  days. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  65 


INGENUOUSNESS. 

One  or  two  days  after  this,  Rollo  and  two 
or  three  of  the  other  children  were  playing  in 
the  orchard,  in  the  recess,  and  they  had 
rambled  to  some  distance  from  the  house, 
along  a  kind  of  cart  path  through  the  grass. 
At  length  Rollo  saw,  at  a  little  distance  be- 
fore them,  that  the  path  led  through  a  great 
red  gate,  which  was  open.  Beyond  the  gate 
was  a  wood,  which  looked  very  pleasant, 
and  Rollo  wanted  to  go  there. 

"  Oh,  let  us  go  out  through  that  great  gate." 
said  he. 

"No,  no,"  said  Lucy,  "we  must  not  go 
out  of  the  orchard." 

"Why  not?"  said  Rollo. 

"Why,  Miss  Mary  said,"  replied  Henry, 
"  that  we  must  not.  She  said  she  did  not 
want  to  have  us  climb  over  that  great  gate  ; 
but  it  is  open  now ;  so  I  suppose  we  may  go." 

"  No,"  said  Lucy,  - !  we  had  better  not ;  Miss 
Mary  does  not  want  us  to  go  so  far  away." 

«  Why,  there  is  no  harm  in  going  so  far 
away,"  said  Rollo,  "if  the  gate  is  open.     I 

c*  6* 


66  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

suppose  she  was  afraid  we  should  tear  our 
clothes,  getting  over  the  gate.  That  is  all 
the  reason." 

"  No,  it  is  not,"  said  a  little  girl  named 
Anne,  who  was  with  them.  "  She  said  we 
could  not  hear  the  bell  if  we  were  far  away." 

"Oh  yes;  we  can  hear  the  hell,  just  over 
there ;  it  is  not  but  a  few  steps  farther." 

"You  had  better  not,"  said  Lucy;  "I  am 
going  back.     Come,  Anne." 

But  Anne  sat  still  upon  the  grass,  pulling 
out  the  little  pink  corollas  from  the  clover 
tops,  and  biting  off  the  sweet  end ;  and  look- 
ing occasionally  at  Rollo  and  Henry,  who 
walked  along  towards  the  gate.  Lucy  turned 
back  now  and  then,  as  she  moved  slowly 
along  towards  the  school-room,  and  called  to 
Anne ;  but  Anne  paid  no  attention  to  her. 

In  the  mean  time  Rollo  and  Henry  came 
up  pretty  near  the  gate,  and  looked  through, 
but  they  felt  a  little  afraid  to  go;  so  they 
walked  along  by  the  stone  wall,  looking  for 
berries,  until  at  length  they  got  to  playing  to- 
gether, and  Henry  pulled  off  Rollo' s  cap,  and 
laughing  very  heartily  all  the  time,  he  threw 
it  away  over  the  wall. 

"  There,  now  I  have  got  to  go,"  said  Rollo, 
"  to  get  my  cap,  and  you  must  go  too." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  67 

So  Rollo  and  Henry  went  along  together 
through  the  gate,  and  Anne  followed  them 
timidly.  When  they  got  through,  they  did 
not  immediately  go  and  get  the  cap,  and 
come  directly  back;  but  they  sauntered 
slowly  along,  looking  at  the  trees  and  flowers. 

Presently,  however,  Rollo  took  up  his  cap 
and  put  it  on,  just  as  Henry  saw  a  little 
squirrel  running  along  upon  a  log,  and  the 
boys  concluded  to  watch  him  and  follow  him, 
so  as  to  find  out  where  his  hole  was.  The 
squirrel  ran  along  the  log,  and  at  the  end  of 
it  he  came  to  a  small  tree.  He  ran  up  the 
tree,  thence  along  one  of  the  branches,  and 
at  the  end  of  that  branch  he  looked  down 
upon  the  extremity  of  a  branch  from  another 
tree.  The  children  were  exceedingly  pleased 
to  see  how  far  he  could  leap,  and  how  dexter- 
ously he  could  seize  hold  of  the  slender 
branch,  which  bent  down  very  far  under  his 
weight;  and  they  followed  him  along  from 
tree  to  tree,  and  from  log  to  log,  until  they 
were  at  some  little  distance  from  the  cart 
path. 

k  Hark  !  what's  that?  "  said  Anne. 

The  children  all  listened ;  and  they  heard 
some  footsteps  in  the  path.  They  looked  in 
that  direction,  and  saw  through  the  trees  a 


68  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

man  going  along  with  a  yoke  of  oxen  before 
him.  The  children  stood  looking  at  him  a 
few  minutes,  and  saw  that,  as  soon  as  the 
oxen  went  through  into  the  orchard,  the  man 
swung  the  gate  to,  and  latched  it,  and  then 
ran  along  to  overtake  his  oxen,  before  the 
children  had  time  to  think  that  they  were 
shut  out. 

"Now  how  shall  we  get  home  again?" 
said  Anne,  walking  along  towards  the  gate, 
and  looking  as  if  she  was  just  going  to  cry. 

Rollo  and  Henry  walked  along  too,  pretty 
fast,  as  they  felt  a  little  anxious,  but  Rollo 
said  they  could  get  over  the  gate  well  enough. 

But  Anne  said  she  never  could  climb  over 
that  great  high  gate,  and  besides,  Miss  Mary 
said  they  never  must  climb  over  it. 

They  went  to  it  and  first  tried  to  open  it, 
but  they  could  not  move  the  great  heavy  iron 
latch. 

"We  must  climb  now,"  said  Rollo;  "  we 
cannot  possibly  get  back  unless  we  do." 

They  tried  to  persuade  Anne  to  do  it,  but 
she  was  not  accustomed  to  climbing,  and  she 
was  afraid.  She  stepped  up  one  or  two  bars, 
but  did  not  dare  to  go  any  farther,  and  when 
Rollo  and  Henry  tried  to  lift  her  up  gently, 
she  screamed  and  cried. 


KOLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  69 

"  Let  us  go  and  leave  her,"  said  Rollo,  a 
little  out  of  patience. 

"No,"  said  Henry,  "I  would  not  leave 
her  here  all  alone  ;"  and  he  looked  around  as 
if  he  did  not  know  what  to  do. 

As  he  turned  around  thus,  he  saw  through 
the  woods  out  towards  the  main  road,  and 
perceived  that  the  road  was  not  very  far  off, 
and  he  proposed  that  they  should  go  out 
there  and  try  to  get  over  into  the  great  road, 
and  then  walk  along  in  it  to  the  front  of  the 
house. 

They  accordingly  walked  along,  following 
the  wall,  and  endeavoring  to  find  some  place 
where  they  might  climb  over.  But  the  wall 
was  pretty  high,*  and  it  was  made  of  round 
and  loose  stones,  and  they  were  afraid  it 
would  tumble  down  upon  them  if  they  at- 
tempted to  climb  over.  At  length,  however, 
they  reached  the  road,  and  there  they  found 
a  pair  of  open  bars,  so  open  that  they  could 
creep  through,  and  thus  they  got  fairly  out 
into  the  main  road. 

Here  they  thought  their  troubles  were  all 
over,  and  they  proceeded  slowly  along,  until 
they  heard  a  little  bell  ringing  in  the  direction 
of  the  school-room,  and  they  all  looked  up 
and  began  to  walk  faster.     But  in  a  minute 


70  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

or  two  they  saw  on  before  them,  in  the  road, 
a  large  drove  of  pigs  coming  along.  This 
drove  was  just  about  opposite  to  the  house 
that  the  school-room  was  in,  and  there  were  so 
many  in  it  that  they  filled  up  the  road,  and 
the  sides  of  the  road,  from  wall  to  wall,  and 
they  were  coming  rapidly  along. 

The  children  stopped  and  did  not  know 
what  to  do ;  but  the  drove  came  nearer  and 
nearer,  and  some  of  the  foremost  pigs  came 
running  along  in  advance  of  the  rest,  kick- 
ing up  their  heels  and  squealing,  and  the 
children,  a  good  deal  frightened,  turned  and 
ran,  Rollo  holding  Anne  by  the  hand.  They 
might  have  crept  back  under  the  bars  into  the 
wood  again,  but  they  forgot  that  place  of  re- 
treat until  they  had  passed  by  it,  and  so  they 
went  on  walking  fast  and  running  until  they 
came  to  another  farm-house.  Here  was  a 
large  yard  by  the  side  of  the  house,  and  the 
children  fled  into  it ;  for  greater  safety  they 
mounted  up  into  a  large  wagon  which  stood 
there,  and  sitting  down  upon  the  seat,  they 
watched  the  drove  until  it  had  got  by.# 

Then  they  got  down  from  the  wagon,  and 
hurried  along  to  school  without  any  further 
adventures.  They  found,  when  they  came 
in3  that  they  were  very  late.     The  scholars 

*  See  Frontispiece. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  71 

were  all  at  their  studies,  and  one  class  was 
reciting.  Miss  Mary,  however,  said  nothing 
to  them,  and  they  all  took  their  seats  and 
began  their  studies. 

When  the  scholars  had  all  put  away  their 
books  that  afternoon,  just  before  school  was 
done,  Miss  Mary  said, 

"  Children,  I  want  you  all  to  attend  to  me. 
This  afternoon  three  of  the  scholars  were 
very  late  after  recess.  Something  special 
must  have  taken  place  to  have  kept  them  out 
so  long.  I  am  going  to  call  upon  each  of 
them  to  tell  me  the  whole  story.  Now  I  want 
you  to  tell  me  a  plain,  straight-forward,  hon- 
est story,  from  beginning  to  end.  Anne,  as 
you  are  the  youngest,  you  may  begin." 

Anne  stood  up  immediately,  and,  with  a 
very  honest  and  innocent  face,  said, 

"Why,  please,  Miss  Mary,  we  could  not 
get  back  because  the  road  was  so  full  of  pigs." 

At  this  all  the  scholars  laughed,  and  even 
Miss  Mary  smiled.  Presently,  however,  she 
said, 

"But,  Anne,  that  is  not  telling  me  the 
whole  story.  I  want  you  to  begin  at  the  be- 
ginning, and  tell  me  all  about  it; — where 
you  went,  and  what  you  did,  and  all  that 
happened." 


72  EOLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Anne  looked  this  way  and  that,  a  little 
confused,  and  then  said, 

"  Why,  Miss  Mary, — I'll  tell  you ;  we  went, 
— we  had  to  go, — you  see, — out  in  the  road ; 
and  we  could  not  get  along  till  the  pigs  went 
by." 

Here  the  scholars  laughed  again,  and  Miss 
Mary  said  that  she  supposed  that  Anne  was 
not  quite  old  enough  to  tell  a  regular  and 
connected  story,  and  so  she  would  let  Henry 
try.  "  I  wish  you  to  begin  at  the  beginning, 
Henry,  and  tell  me  all  about  it,  from  begin- 
ning to  end." 

"Well,"  said  Henry,  "I  .will  tell  you. 
You  see  we  were  playing  out  in  the  orchard, 
out  by  the  two  pear  trees.  Rollo  had  some 
wishing  grass,  and  he  wanted  me  to  wish 
with  him.  And, — and, — I  told  him  that  I 
thought  after  school  I  should  go  and  take 
a  ride  with  my  father.  And  he  asked  me 
where,  and  I  told  him  I  thought  I  should  go 
over  the  river ; — and  then  we  went  to  catching 
butterflies,  and, — and—-" 

"  But  stop  a  minute,  Henry,"  said  Miss 
Mary ;  "  you  are  not  going  on  right,  at  all. 
You  are  not  telling  me  any  thing  about  the 
cause  of  your  being  late.  I  want  you  to  tell 
me  only  what  relates  to  that ;  and  you  need 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  73 

not  give  all  the  conversation,  and  the  minute 
details,  but  only  the  important  points,  so  that 
I  can  understand  who  was  to  blame  and  how 
you  were  to  blame." 

Heiii'y  reflected  a  moment,  and  then  he  said 
again, 

"  We  were  playing  out  by  the  great  gate, 
and  Rollo  was  going  through  to  get  his  cap, 
and  wanted  me  to  go  with  him ;  and  he  told 
me  you  would  let  us  go  if  the  gate  was  open. 
So  I  went,  and  then  we  could  not  come  back 
that  way,  for  a  man  came  along  and  shut  the 
gate.  So  we  had  to  go  out  by  the  road,  and 
there  we  met  all  the  pigs." 

"  Now,  Rollo,  we  will  hear  your  story." 

"  Why,  Miss  Mary,  Henry  told  me  that  the 
reason  why  you  did  not  want  us  to  go  over 
there,  was  because  we  must  not  climb  over 
the  gate ;  and  so  I  thought  as  the  gate  was 
open  we  might  go;  and  he  threw  my  cap 
over,  and  so  I  was  obliged  to  go ;  and  then 
Anne  would  not  come  back  that  way,  be- 
cause the  gate  was  shut ;  and  then  we  had 
to  go  around  by  the  road,  and  that  took  us 
a  great  while  on  account  of  the  pigs." 

After  a  short  pause,  Miss  Mary  looked  up 
and  said,    "I   am  not  quite   satisfied   with 
either  of  those  accounts." 
d  7 


74  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

"  That  is  just  the  way  it  was.  Miss  Mary,' 
said  Rollo. 

"  Do  you  think  you  did  any  thing  wrong 
in  going  away  as  you  did?" 

"  Why,  Henry  threw  my  hat  over,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  That  is  not  what  I  asked  you.  Do  you 
think  now,  in  looking  back  over  the  whole 
transaction,  that  you  did  any  thing  wrong?" 

Rollo  hung  his  head,  and  was  silent  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  said  timidly, 

"  Why,  yes, — I  suppose  I  did." 

"  But  no  one  would  have  supposed  that  you 
did  any  thing  wrong  from  your  account  of 
it,"  said  Miss  Mary. 

Rollo  was  silent. 

"  And,  Henry,  do  you  think,  now,  that  you 
did  any  thing  wrong?" 

"  Why — yes,"  said  Henry  reluctantly. 

"But  from  your  account  of  the  matter,  no 
one  would  have  thought  that  you  were  at  all 
m  fault. 

"Children,"  said  Miss  Mary  again,  speak- 
ing to  the  whole  school,  "do  you  know 
what  ingenuousness  is?" 

The  children  were  silent. 

Miss  Mary  looked  around  the  room,  and 
presently  saw   in  one  comer  a  little  hand 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  75 

raised.  It  was  held  up  by  a  girl  who  thought 
she  could  tell  what  it  meant. 

"What  does  it  mean?"  said  Miss  Mary. 
"  What  is  an  ingenuous  boy?" 

"It  is  any  body  that  can  make  curious 
things,"  said  the  little  girl. 

"  No,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  you  are  thinking 
of  ingenious.  Ingenuous  is  another  word. 
An  ingenuous  boy  is  one  who  is  frank  and 
honest,  and  open-hearted  in  relating  every 
thing  just  as  it  occurred,  especially  where  he 
was  himself  to  blame.  He  does  not  tell  other 
persons'  faults  and  hide  his  own,  but  he  would 
rather  tell  his  own,  and  say  as  little  as  possi- 
ble of  other  persons'.  Now,  children,  do  you 
think  that  these  boys  have  been  ingenuous  or 
disingenuous?" 

"  Disingenuous,"  said  the  children. 

"  Yes ;  each  one  has  told  wherein  the  other 
was  to  blame,  and  concealed  what  he  did 
that  was  wrong  himself.  I  suppose  they 
have  not  either  of  them  told  a  falsehood,  but 
they  have  not  been  frank  and  ingenuous. 

Rollo  and  Henry  felt  guilty  and  hung  their 
heads,  and  they  were  expecting  that  Miss 
Mary  was  going  to  say  something  more ;  but 
presently,  when  they  looked  up  again,  they 
saw  that  she  was  finding  the  place  to  read  in 


76  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

the  Bible,  and  soon  after  she  closed  the 
school.  The  boys  then  expected  that  she 
would  speak  to  them  after  school,  but  she 
did  not.  So  they  took  their  hats  and  went 
home. 

Rollo  felt  uneasy  and  uncomfortable  all  the 
evening,  and  Jonas  saw  him  walking  about 
the  yard,  looking  thoughtful  and  sober ;  and 
so  just  at  sundown,  when  Jonas  was  going  to 
the  barn,  to  shut  it  up  and  make  all  snug  for 
the  night,  he  asked  Rollo  to  go  with  him. 
Jonas  put  things  in  order  in  the  barn,  and 
then  untied  a  horse  which  was  standing  there, 
and  asked  Rollo  to  lead  him  out  to  the  pump 
to  drink.  When  he  had  drank,  Rollo  led  him 
back,  and  Jonas  fastened  him  into  his  stall 
again.  Then  they  went  up  into  the  chamber 
to  pitch  him  down  some  hay.  Rollo  sat 
down  at  the  great  window, — the  same  place 
where  they  used  to  watch  their  squirrel  traps 
with  a  spy-glass. 

"Well,  Rollo,"  said  Jonas,  "and  what 
trouble  have  you  had  at  school  to-day?" 

"  Trouble  !  "  said  Rollo,  a  little  surprised, 
"  no  trouble  that  I  know  of." 

"A  little,  I  guess,"  said  Jonas,  pitching 
down  another  forkfull  of  hay. 

"  Why  I  was  late  at  recess,"  said  Rollo, 
"thatisalL" 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  77 

"I  knew  that  something  was  the  matter," 
said  Jonas;  "come,  tell  me  all  about  it." 

So  Rollo  told  Jonas  all  about  it,  walking 
around  after  him,  as  he  went  about  fastening 
up  the  doors.  He  got  through  just  as  Jonas 
was  putting  the  fid  into  the  staple  of  the 
great  front  doors. 

"Is  that  really  the  whole  story,  honestly 
told?"  said  Jonas,  as  they  walked  along 
towards  the  small  door  where  they  were  to 
go  out. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo.  And  it  was  really  so, 
for  Rollo  had  determined  that  he  would  not  be 
disingenuous  again,  and  so  he  told  Jonas  the 
whole  story  honestly  and  fairly. 

"  And  what  are  you  going  to  do  now  ?  "  said 
Jonas,  as  they  came  out  of  the  small  door 
and  fastened  it  up. 

"  Why,— I  don't  know."  The  truth  is  that 
Rollo  had  not  thought  that  there  was  any 
thing  for  him  to  do. 

" I  know  what  /would  do,"  said  Jonas. 

"What?"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  should  go  to  Miss  Mary  to-morrow 
morning,  and  ask  her  to  let  you  and  Henry 
try  again  to  tell  the  story,  and  see  if  you  can- 
not do  it  ingenuously" 

"  I  did  not  think  of  that,"  said  Rollo. 
7*. 


78  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"  You  had  better  do  it,"  said  Jonas. 

"1  think  I  will,"  said  Rollo. 

The  next  morning  Rollo  hastened  along 
towards  school,  so  as  to  get  there  a  little  be- 
fore the  time.  The  children  were  nearly  all 
there,  some  sitting  at  their  desks,  and  some 
standing  around  the  room.  Rollo  went  up  to 
Miss  Mary's  desk,  and  stood  still  there  a  few 
minutes,  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  speak 
to  her.  Presently  Miss  Mary  looked  up  from 
her  writing  and  said, 

"  Well,  Rollo,  good  morning.  Do  you 
want  to  speak  to  me?" 

"  Yes,  Miss  Mary,"  said  Rollo.  "I  am  sorry 
that  I  did  not  tell  about  our  going  away  more 
honestly  yesterday,  and  wanted  "to  know  if 
you  would  let  us  try  again  to-day." 

"  Does  Henry  wish  for  an  opportunity  to 
try  again?" 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Rollo.  "  He  has  not 
come  yet,  and  so  I  could  not  ask  him." 

"Very  well,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  I  will  see 
about  it." 

Accordingly,  just  before  school  was  done 
that  day,  Miss  Mary  told  the  scholars  that 
the  boys  wanted  to  have  an  opportunity  to 
tell  the  story  of  their  going  away,  again,  to 
see  if  they  could  not  do  it  in  a  more  in  genu- 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  79 

ous  manner.  She  had  spoken  to  Henry  ahout 
it  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  he  liked 
Rollo's  plan. 

So  when  all  their  books  were  put  away, 
Miss  Mary  said, 

"Now,  Henry." 

Henry  rose  and  told  his  story  thus  : 

"We  were  out  there  playing,  and  Rollo 
wanted  to  go  through  the  gate;  he  did  not 
know  you  had  forbidden  it.  I  wanted  to  go  too 
very  much,  and  I  told  him  that  I  thought  we 
might  go  if  the  gate  was  open.  Lucy  was 
there  and  told  us  we  ought  not  to  go,  and  she 
went  away.  By  and  by,  I  threw  Rollo's  cap 
over,  and  then  he  and  I  went  to  get  it.  But 
we  did  not  come  back  directly.  We  played 
around  there  in  the  woods,  until  somebody 
came  along  and  shut  the  gate.  After  that 
we  came  home  as  soon  as  we  could,  though 
it  took  us  a  good  while,  for  we  had  to  come 
round  by  the  road,  and  there  was  a  drove  of 
pigs  coming  along,  and  we  had  to  stop." 

"  Well,  Rollo,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "now  let 
us  hear  your  account  of  it." 

"We  were  playing  out  there,  and  I  wanted 
to  go  through  the  gate ;  Lucy  told  me  I  ought 
not  to,  but  I  tried  to  persuade  Henry  to  go, 
and  then,  when  I  went  over  after  my  cap,  I 


80  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

led  him  along ;  and  we  took  Anne  with  us 
too.  Then  we  played  about  there  in  the 
woods,  looking  at  a  squirrel,  until  we  got  shut 
out,  and  we  could  not  open  the  gate,  and 
Anne  was  afraid  to  get  over,  so  we  came 
around  by  the  road." 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Miss  Mary;  "now  you 
have  told  the  story  very  well,  both  of  you. 
Each  of  you  have  told  his  own  faults  more 
distinctly  than  he  did  those  of  the  other. 
That  is  always  the  best  way.  It  is  much 
more  pleasant  than  it  is  to  have  each  one  ex- 
cusing himself  and  throwing  all  the  blame 
upon  his  playmates  ;  which  is  the  way  boys 
very  often  do." 

Late  that  afternoon,  after  school,  Miss  Mary 
happened  to  be  standing  at  the  little  portico 
of  the  school-room  door,  looking  out  into  the 
orchard,  and  turning  her  head  in  the  direction 
towards  the  little  gate  which  led  towards  the 
spring,  she  saw  among  the  trees  and  shrubs 
the  bare  head  of  a  little  girl,  moving  about 
near  the  gate.  She  thought  at.  once  that  it 
was  Dovey,  and  supposed  that  she  had  come 
to  look  for  her  bonnet.  Now  Rollo  had 
brought  the  bonnet  in,  and  it  was  hanging  up 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  81 

upon  a  nail  in  the  entry,  and  so  Miss  Mary- 
took  it  down  and  walked  out  to  meet  her. 

Now  Miss  Mary  was  well  acquainted  with 
bad  children,  and  knew  pretty  well  how 
they  would  he  likely  to  feel  and  act  in  almost 
all  situations.  She  supposed  that  the  reason 
why  Dovey  had  not  come  to  school  that  day, 
was  because  she  had  been  afraid  to,  after  her 
bad  behavior  of  the  day  before.  She  deter- 
mined therefore  to  speak  to  her  kindly  now, 
in  hopes  that,  when  she  saw  she  had  nothing 
to  fear,  she  would  come  to  school  again.  She 
accordingly  went  up  pretty  near  to  the  gate 
before  Dovey  saw  her,  and  then  called  to  her 
in  a  mild  and  pleasant  voice. 

Dovey  looked  up  quite  surprised. 

"  Are  you  looking  for  your  bonnet?" 

"Yes,"  said  Dovey,  "  I  am,"  and  that  in- 
stant saw  that  Miss  Mary  had  it  in  her  hand. 

"  Here  it  is,"  said  Miss  Mary. 

Dovey  came  up  timidly  to  take  it,  looking 
as  if  she  expected  that  Miss  Mary  was  going 
to  seize  her. 

"Is  your  mother  pretty  well  to-day?"  said 
Miss  Mary,  with  a  pleasant  voice,  as  she 
handed  her  the  bonnet. 

"Yes,  ma'am,"  said  Dovey;  and  she  took 
her  bonnet  hastily  and  walked  away.     She 


82 


ROLLO  AT  SCHOOL. 


went  directly  out  through  the  front  gate  and 
disappeared. 

Miss  Mary  hoped,  after  this,  that  she  should 
see  Dovey  at  school  the  next  day,  but  she 
did  not  come. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  83 


SUBMISSION. 

In  one  part  of  the  orchard,  not  far  from  the 
garden  fence,  there  stood,  or  rather  reclined, 
an  old  pear  tree.  Many  years  before,  it  had 
been  struck  with  lightning,  and  split  down 
through  the  middle.  One  half  had  died,  and 
had  been  long  since  cut  away.  The  other  part 
had  been  gradually  borne  down  by  the  load 
of  its  branches  and  fruit,  until  some  of  the 
large  limbs  touched  the  ground,  where  it 
rested,  the  trunk  being,  for  some  distance, 
nearly  horizontal. 

Now  by  the  side  of  this  tree,  in  a  corner 
of  the  orchard,  there  lay  a  great  heap  of 
brush-wood,  which  came  from  the  cuttings 
of  the  trees  when  they  trimmed  them  in  the 
spring.  The  children  had  asked  Miss  Mary 
to  let  them  ha\re  these  branches  to  build  a 
bower,  by  leaning  them  up  against  the  trunk 
of  the  pear  tree ;  and,  one  recess,  they  were 
engaged  in  doing  it.  Xlollo  was  master  work- 
man, for  he  had  learned  to  make  wigwams 
and  bowers,  by  working  with  Jonas  in  the 
woods. 

So  the  other  children  were  bringing  the 


84  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

branches  along,  after  pulling  them  out  of  the 
pile,  and  Rollo  was  placing  them  on  each 
side  of  the  stem  of  the  pear  tree.  The  way 
he  placed  them  was  this  :  he  placed  the  large 
ends  upon  the  ground,  and  leaned  the  tops 
over  against  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  which 
was  about  four  feet  above  the  ground,  and 
formed  a  sort  of  ridge-pole,  very  convenient 
for  supporting  the  tops  of  the  branches,  which 
Rollo  leaned  against  it.  These  branches 
themselves  formed  the  sides  of  the  bower,  and 
the  branches  of  the  pear  tree,  where  they 
rested  upon  the  ground,  formed  one  end. 
They  left  a  space  open  near  the  root  of  the 
tree  for  a  door. 

Most  of  the  children  who  were  there  were 
at  work  helping  to  build  the  bower,  but  there 
was  one  boy,  not  quite  so  large  as  Rollo,  in  a 
straw  hat  and  striped  jacket,  who  was 
perched  up  upon  the  pear  tree,  pretty  near  to 
the  end  of  the  horizontal  part  of  the  wood. 
Rollo  recollected  having  seen  him  in  the 
school-room,  but  he  did  not  know  his  name. 
He  had  rather  an  ill-natured  expression  of 
countenance,  and  he  sat  idly  upon  the  tree, 
with  his  hands  in  his  pockets  and  his  legs 
dangling  below. 

At  length  Rollo  stopped  a  moment  from  his 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  85 

work  to  rest,  and,  looking  up  pleasantly  to- 
wards the  boy,  said, 

"  What  is  your  name?" 

"Julius,"  said  the  boy  rather  gruffly. 

"  Should  not  you  like  to  help  us  build  our 
bower?"  said  Rollo. 

"  No,"  said  Julius. 

Rollo,  thus  repulsed,  said  no  more,  but  went 
on  with  his  work.  As,  however,  he  gradu- 
ally advanced  along  the  tree,  arranging  the 
branches  regularly,  he  came  at  length  to  the 
place  where  Julius  was,  and  he  asked  him 
if  he  would  be  so  good  as  to  get  down,  or  else 
move  on  among  the  branches  of  the  pear  tree, 
so  that  he  could  finish  the  bower.  But  Ju- 
lius would  not  move.  Some  of  the  other 
children  came  up  then  bringing  branches, 
and  began  to  call  upon  Julius  to  get  down, 
but  still  he  would  not,  and  they  were  fast 
getting  into  a  dispute  about  it,  when  they  saw 
Miss  Mary  coming. 

Miss  Mary  was  coming  to  see  how  they 
were  getting  along  with  their  bower.  When 
the  children  saw  her,  they  stopped  talking  to 
Julius,  and  he,  being  afraid  of  her,  got  down 
from  the  pear  tree,  and  in  a  few  minutes  went 
away. 

Miss  Mary  seemed  quite  pleased  with  the 
8 


86  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

bower,  and  helped  them  finish  it.  She  showed 
them  where  it  would  be  well  for  them  to  make 
a  window,  and  even  began  to  make  it  herself; 
but  before  she  had  got  it  finished  the  bell 
rang,  and  she  immediately  left  the  work  and 
began  to  move  towards  the  school,  the  chil- 
dren all  following  her. 

"  I  am  sorry  we  have  not  time  to  finish  it," 
said  Francis.  "  If  Julius  had  not  acted  so, 
we  should  have  had  it  all  done." 

"I  saw  Julius,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "and  I 
shall  attend  to  it." 

They  went  on,  talking  about  their  bower, 
until  they  reached  the  school-room,  and  then 
they  all  went  in.  Rollo  observed,  about  half 
an  hour  after  this,  that  Julius  was  standing 
at  Miss  Mary's  desk,  and  that  she  was  talk- 
ing with  him.  She  looked  pleasant,  but  he 
hung  his  head  and  appeared  ill-natured  and 
sullen,  and  kept  biting  the  corner  of  his  jacket 
all  the  time.  Rollo  thought  that  Miss  Mary 
was  talking  to  him  about  his  troubling  them 
in  the  recess,  but  she  did  not  think  he  seemed 
very  sorry  for  his  fault. 

Rollo  noticed  Julius  after  this  a  good  deal 
more  than  he  had  done.  He  seemed  to  sit 
pretty  still  in  his  seat,  but  did  not  study 
much.     He  was  idle  and  dull,  playing  with 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  87 

his  book  or  looking  about  the  room.  When 
he  came  up  to  read,  Kollo  observed  that  he 
had  not  smoothed  down  the  corners  of  his 
leaves,  as  all  the  rest  of  the  children  had  done 
with  their  books,  after  Miss  Mary  had  talked 
with  them  about  it.  At  first  Rollo  thought 
that  perhaps  Julius  had  not  been  present 
when  they  talked  about  Doveyism,  but  then 
he  recollected  seeing  him  walking  about  after 
them  that  day,  looking  rather  sullenly. 

The  children  generally  did  not  like  Julius 
very  much,  and  yet  they  scarcely  knew  why. 
He  was  not  so  full  of  mischief  and  roguery 
as  Dovey  had  been,  and  in  fact  he  did  not 
often  trouble  them  at  all,  but  when  he  did  do 
wrong  he  seemed  more  obstinate  and  sullen 
about  it.  When  Miss  Mary  told  the  children 
to  put  away  their  books  at  the  close  of  the 
school,  Julius  generally  obeyed  more  slowly, 
and  made  rather  more  noise.  And  when 
Miss  Mary  asked  them  not  to  make  so  much 
noise,  all  the  rest  would  generally  try  to  be 
more  still,  except  Julius,  who  commonly  went 
on  rattling  his  slate  and  books  about  as  much 
as  before.  The  scholars  did  not  notice  these 
things  very  much,  but  Miss  Mary  did.  She 
always  noticed  very  particularly  when  she 
observed  that  any  of  the  children  did  not 
appear  to  wish  to  improve. 


88  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

After  school  that  day,  some  of  the  children 
came  around  Miss  Mary's  desk,  and  asked 
her  what  she  supposed  had  become  of  Dovey. 
Miss  Mary  said  that  perhaps  her  mother 
wanted  her,  or  perhaps  she  was  afraid  to 
come.  "I  wish,"  she  continued,  "that,  if 
any  of  you  see  her,  you  would  tell  her  she 
need  not  be  afraid  to  come,  for  I  am  not  going 
to  punish  her." 

a  But  are  you  not  going  to  send  her  away 
from  school  ?"  said  Henry.  "  We  don't  want 
her  to  stay." 

"I  don't  know,"  said  Miss  Mary;  "that 
depends  upon  what  she  has  to  say." 

The  children  then  solemnly  assured  Miss 
Mary  that  they  had  themselves  told  her  the 
whole  truth  about  the  dipper,  and  that  if 
Dovey  should  say  any  thing  different  from 
their  account,  it  would  not  be  true. 

"  I  do  not  suppose."  said  Miss  Mary,  "  that 
Dovey  will  make  out  the  facts  to  be  different ; 
but  what  I  want  to  know  is,  whether  she  is 
willing  to  leave  off  her  bad  conduct  and  try 
to  be  a  good  girl, — or  whether  she  is  obstinate 
and  sullen,  and  going  to  continue  bad." 

"  There's  Dovey  now,"  said  Rollo,  who 
had  been  standing  at  the  window  near  his 
desk,  looking  out.     "  There, — she  has  gone." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  89 

The  children  all  ran  to  the  window  to 
look.     Miss  Mary  said, 

"  Come  back,  children ; — come  away  from 
the  window,  all  of  you." 

They  all  obeyed  except  Julius,  who  still 
lingered  near,  and  tried  to  look  out,  without 
appearing  to  do  so. 

"  Come  away,  Julius,"  said  Miss  Mary. 

H I  am  away,"  said  Julius,  moving  a  little 
towards  Miss  Mary,  and  slipping  down  upon 
a  seat.  In  a  moment,  however,  he  was  again 
trying  to  look  out  of  the  window. 

Miss  Mary  then  said  that  she  wished  the 
children  would  all  go,  and  accordingly  they 
put  on  their  things  and  went  away,  two  or 
three  together,  until  the  school-room  was 
empty  and  Miss  Mary  was  alone. 

Miss  Mary  then  put  on  her  bonnet  and 
walked  along  towards  the  woods  where  Rollo 
had  seen  Dovey.  She  supposed  that  Dovey 
had  been  afraid  to  come  to  school,  and  that 
accordingly  she  had  been  playing  around  in 
the  woods  during  school  hours,  her  mother 
not  knowing  where  she  was.  Miss  Mary 
was  in  hopes  to  find  her,  and  persuade  her  to 
come  again. 

She  walked  along,  therefore,  'looking  out 
carefully  for  Dovey.  She  went  through  the 
d*  8* 


90  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

gate  leading  down  towards  the  spring,  and 
then  turned  off  by  a  path  which  conducted 
her  to  a  little  grove  of  maples.  Here  she 
soon  saw  Dovey  walking  along  the  path 
before  her,  stopping  occasionally  to  gather 
flowers.  Miss  Mary  quickened  her  steps  until 
she  came  pretty  near  her,  and  then  said, 

"Dovey!" 

Dovey  started  at  hearing  her  name  called 
so  near,  and,  turning  round,  saw  Miss  Mary. 
Her  first  thought  was  to  run,  but  when  she 
saw  how  pleasantly  Miss  Mary  looked,  her 
fears  were  allayed,  and  she  stood  still. 

"  Are  there  any  pretty  flowers  about  here  V7 
said  Miss  Mary. 

"  I  have  found  so  many,"  said  Dovey,  hold- 
ing up  a  few  which  she  had  gathered. 

w  Let  me  see  them,"  said  Miss  Mary;  and 
Dovey  came  up  towards  her,  and  they  walked 
along  together,  talking  about  the  flowers 
After  a  few  minutes  Miss  Mary  said, 

"  But,  Dovey,  why  have  you  not  been  at 
school  these  two  or  three  days?" 

"My  mother  has  wanted  me  at  home," 
said  Dovey,  with  some  little  hesitation. 

Miss  Mary  thought  that  this  was  probably 
not  true,  but  she  did  not  say  so;  she  only 
walked  along,  and  presently  she  began  to  talk 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  91 

with  her  ahout  her  bad  conduct  the  other  day, 
and  her  conduct  generally. 

"  Don't  people  blame  you  pretty  often  for 
something  or  other,  Dovey?" 

"  Yes,  ma'am,  prettf-  often,"  said  Dovey. 

"  Your  mother  blames  you,  does  not  she?" 

"Yes,  ma'am,  she's  all  the  time  scolding 
at  me." 

"And  other  people  blame  you?" 

"  Yes,  ma'am." 

"And  the  children  you  play  with  blame 
you  sometimes,  do  they  not?" 

"Yes,  ma'am." 

"  Well,  now  the  truth  is,  Dovey,  that  you 
have  a  good  many  faults ;  I  think  it  probable 
that  you  get  blamed  sometimes  when  you  do 
not  deserve  it,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  you 
deserve  a  good  deal  of  blame.  You  made  a 
good  deal  of  trouble  the  first  day  you  came 
to  school.     Still  I  am  glad  you  have  come." 

Dovey  did  not  know  exactly  what  to  make 
of  this  talk,  and  she  did  not  reply. 

"  That  is,  I  am  glad  you  have  come,"  con- 
tinued Miss  Mary,  "if  you  are  only  willing 
to  try  to  cure  yourself  of  your  faults.  You 
are  very  young,  and  you  may  cure  yourself 
of  them  entirely  if  you  choose,  and  I  should 
like  to  help  you.     But  if  you  love  your  faults 


92  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

and  do  not  wish  to  be  cured  of  them,  why, 
of  course,  there  is  nothing  to  be  done.  You 
must  grow  up  a  bad  girl." 

Dovey  continued  silent.  She  did  not  know 
what  to  say.  She  had  been  scolded  a  great 
deal  about  her  faults  and  misdemeanors,  but 
she  had  never  heard  a  kind  and  friendly  con- 
versation before,  on  the  subject  of  her  bad 
character.  Miss  Mary,  perceived,  however, 
that  she  was  making  some  impression  upon 
her  mind,  and  so  she  went  'on  explaining  to 
her  how  much  more  happily  her  life  would  be 
spent  if  she  would  become  a  gentle,  docile, 
obedient  and  industrious  girl ;  and  she  showed 
her  also  how  great  a  sin  it  was  to  be  idle, 
reckless,  selfish,  and  unkind  in  her  treatment 
of  her  playmates,  and  undutiful  to  her  mother. 

Dovey  heard  it  all  in  silence,  and  when 
Miss  Mary  had  finished,  and  waited  to  hear 
what  she  would  say.  Dovey  walked  along  a 
few  minutes  without  speaking  a  word.  Then 
she  looked  up  into  her  teacher's  face,  and 
said, 

"  Well,  Miss  Mary,  I  will  come  to  school 
this  afternoon,  and  I  will  be  a  better  girl." 

Miss  Mary  was  very  glad  to  hear  this 
declaration,  for  Dovey  made  it  in  a  manner 
apparently  so  heartfelt  and  honest,  that  she 


EOLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  93 

did  not  doubt  she  then  really  meant  to  try  to 
reform.  She  thought,  however,  that  she 
would  put  her  sincerity  to  the  test,  by  asking 
her  about  her  absence  from  school,  which  she 
did  in  these  words : 

"  Well  now,  Dovey,  I  want  to  ask  you  one 
question,  and  you  may  do  as  you  please  about 
answering  it.  But  if  you  do  answer  it  at  all, 
be  honest  and  tell  the  truth.  It  is  very 
wicked  to  tell  a  lie.  If  you  really  wish  to 
improve  and  to  correct  your  faults,  you  must 
always  be  willing  to  let  me  know  the  exact 
truth.  Now  I  suppose  that  your  mother  has 
not  kept  you  at  home  these  two  or  three  days 
past,  but  that  you  have  staid  out  in  the  fields 
here,  playing,  because  you  were  afraid  to 
come  to  school.     That  is  true,  isn't  it?" 

Dovey  hung  her  head  and  was  silent ;  but 
presently  she  said  faintly,  "  Yes,  ma'am." 

"And  your  mother  supposed  all  the  time 
that  you  had  been  at  school?" 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  Dovey  again  timidly. 
"Shall  you  tell  her?" 

This  last  question  was  rather  a  perplexing 
one  to  Miss  Mary.  She  did  not  know  at  the 
moment  what  it  would  be  best  for  her  to  do. 
So  she  told  Dovey  she  should  think  of  it,  and 
would  talk  with  her  again  in  regard  to  that. 


94  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

"  But  now,  Dovey,"  she  added,  "it  is  nearly 
time  for  you  and  for  me  both  to  go  home, 
You  will  come  now  this  afternoon,  and  I  shall 
soon  see  whether  you  are  really  sincere  in 
your  plan  of  being  a  good  girl." 

"I  will  be,"  said  Dovey.  "I  am  deter- 
mined not  to  do  any  thing  naughty  at  all." 

"  You  will  do  a  great  many  things  that  are 
naughty,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  I  have  no  doubt. 
You  cannot  alter  all  your  old  habits  at  once. 
It  will  take  you  some  time  to  learn  to  be  a 
good  girl;  but  I  shall  be  patient  with  you. 
When  you  do  wrong,  I  shall  kindly  tell  you 
of  it,  and  then  I  can  easily  ascertain  whether 
you  are  sincere  in  your  promises  now." 

"How?"  said  Dovey. 

"  Why,  if  you  really  wish  to  correct  your 
faults,  you  will  be  glad  to  have  me  point 
them  out  to  you,  and  so  you  will  be  good 
natured  about  them,  and  will  try  to  leave 
them  off  at  once.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
you  do  not  care  about  improving,  I  shall  ob- 
serve that,  when  I  tell  you  of  any  thing  wrong, 
you  will  be  displeased,  and  out  of  humor,  or 
you  will  not  show  a  hearty  disposition  to 
leave  it  off  at  once.  We  shall  see.  Good 
bye." 

Here  Miss  Mary  held  out  her  hand  to  Do- 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  95 

vey,  and  bade  her  good  bye.  Then  she 
turned  around  and  went  back,  while  Dovey 
stood  still  in  the  road.  In  a  moment  Dovey 
said, 

"Miss  Mary,  shouldn't  you  like  these 
flowers?''' 

Miss  Mary  thanked  her,  took  the  flowers, 
and  then  each  went  to  her  own  home.  When 
Miss  Mary  reached  the  house,  she  re-arranged 
the  flowers,  and  placed  them  in  a  glass  of 
water  over  the  mantel-piece  in  the  school- 
room. 

That  afternoon,  just  before  school,  Rollo 
was  sitting  upon  the  platform  of  the  portico, 
with  one  or  two  other  boys,  playing  with 
some  pea-pods  which  Jonas  had  given  him 
from  the  garden.  He  was  making  a  boat 
like  those  which  he  used  to  make  at  home. 
He  had  just  shaved  off  the  upper  edge  of  the 
pod,  and  was  counting  the  peas,  or  the  -'sai- 
lors," as  he  called  them,  when  some  of  the 
children  said  that  Dovey  was  coming.  Rollo 
looked  up  a  moment,  and  then  went  on  ex- 
amining his  sailors,  and  considering  which 
one  was  the  biggest,  for  the  captain,  when 
Dovey  came  up  and  began  to  look  over  him. 
She  had  not  stood  there  but  a  moment,  when 


96  HOLLO   AT   SCHOOL. 

she  suddenly  snatched  the  pea-pod,  sailors 
and  all,  out  of  Rollo's  hand,  and  ran  off  into 
the  orchard.  Rollo  was  astonished,  and  very- 
much  displeased.  He  started  to  run  after 
her,  but  she  had  got  so  far  away  before  he 
had  time  even  to  think  what  he  should  do, 
that  there  seemed  but  little  probability  of 
catching  her,  and  then,  just  at  that  moment, 
the  bell  rang,  and  so  he  went  into  school. 

Dovey  came  in  soon  after,  and  they  all 
went  about  their  studies.  The  first  class 
which  went  to  Miss  Mary  was  in  Arithmetic. 
Rollo  and  Dovey  and  Julius,  and  several 
others,  belonged  to  it.  Miss  Mary  examined 
the  slates  and  found  that  they  were  not  clean. 
Several  of  them  were  covered  with  the  re- 
mains of  old  pencil  marks,  and  with  various 
glossy  spots,  from  long  handling  with  the 
fingers.  Julius's  and  Dovey' s  were  the  worst, 
and  Miss  Mary  gave  each  of  them  a  piece  of 
wet  sponge,  and  asked  them  to  go  to  their 
seats,  and  rub  them  clean  on  both  sides,  be- 
fore beginning  their  work. 

Julius  went  to  his  seat,  muttering  to  himself 
that  his  slate  was  as  clean  as  he  could  make 
it,  and  clean  enough.  He,  however,  passed 
the  sponge  lightly  over  it,  and  then  opened  his 
Arithmetic  at  the  place  where  the  sums  were, 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  97 

put  his  elbow  upon  the  page  and  his  cheek 
upon  his  hand,  and,  holding  his  pencil  in  his 
other  hand,  began  to  look  idly  about  the  room. 

Dovey  went  to  her  seat  and  began  scrub- 
bing her  slate  with  all  her  strength.  Pres- 
ently she  thought  that  the  sponge  was  not 
quite  wet  enough,  and  so  she  went  to  Miss 
Mary  and  asked  her  if  she  might  go  out  and 
get  some  more  water.  Miss  Mary  said  no; 
she  must  do  it  as  well  as  she  could  with  that 
sponge,  and  then  go  on  with  her  work.  Do- 
vey then  went  to  her  seat,  and  laid  her  slate 
down  upon  the  desk,  and,  after  rubbing  it 
some  time  with  the  sponge,  concluded  to  pour 
a  little  ink  on  to  make  it  more  wet.  'Tis  true 
the  ink  was  black,  but  then  that  was  almost 
the  color  of  the  slate,  and  so  she  thought  it 
would  make  no  'difference. 

But  it  did  make  a  great  deal  of  difference ; 
for  the  sponge,  as  she  rubbed  it  to  and  fro; 
inked  the  frame  of  the  slate,  and  made  it  look 
very  badly,  and  then  it  covered  the  whole 
surface  of  the  slate  with  an  inky  coating, 
which  did  not  show  much,  it  is  true,  but  it 
was  certain  to  come  off  upon  her  hands  as 
soon  as  she  should  begin  to  use  it. 

When  her  slate  was  rubbed  enough,  she 
began  to  look  around  for  something  to  wipe 
e  9 


98  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

it  dry.  She  could  not  find  any  thing  better, 
and  so  she  took  out  her  pen/  and  began  to 
brush  over  the  surface  of  the  slate  with 
that.  She  found,  however,  that  this  did  not 
make  it  dry,  and  so  she  opened  her  desk  to 
put  away  her  pen  again.  In  doing  this  her 
eyes  fell  upon  the  pea-pod  which  she  had 
snatched  away  from  Rollo,  and  which  she 
had  placed  in  her  desk  when  she  came  into 
school. 

She  took  out  one  of  the  peas,  and  put  it 
upon  a  book  which  she  laid  upon  her  desk, 
and  then,  with  her  pen  for  a  snapper,  she 
snapped  it  over  towards  Julius,  who  sat 
nearly  opposite  to  her.  The  pea  struck 
against  the  window  behind  Julius,  and  then 
bounded  forward  upon  his  desk.  Julius  took 
it  up,  laid  it  upon  a  book,  placed  his  hand 
behind  it,  and  drew  up  his  middle  finger  with 
his  thumb,  in  order  to  snap  it  back  again; 
and  just  at  that  moment  Miss  Mary  looked 
up  from  a  little  class  who  were  reciting  to 
her.  She  had  observed  the  whole  transac- 
tion, though  neither  Dovey  nor  Julius  per- 
ceived that  she  saw  them. 

Miss  Mary  shook  her  head  very  gently  at 
Dovey,  with  a  serious  look ;  and  then  imme- 
diately turned  and  did  the   same  to  Julius. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


•99 


Dovey  immediately  opened  the  lid  of  her 
desk  and  put  her  pen  away,  drew  up  her 
slate,  and  seemed  to  set  herself  in  earnest  at 
work  upon  her  Arithmetic.  Her  countenance 
changed  too  at  once.  It  seemed  to  say,  "Yes, 
I  was  playing.  It  was  wrong.  I  will  stop 
immediately,  and  go  to  my  studies."  Julius, 
on  the  other  hand,  just  released  his  finger 
from  his  thumb  without  snapping  it,  and 
spread  his  hand  over  the  pea,  so  as  to  conceal 
it,  and  yet  holding  his  hand  in  a  careless 
position,  as  if  it  was  there  accidentally ;  and 
he  assumed  an  unconcerned  look,  as  if  he 
was  doing  nothing  wrong. 

*  Dovey  gives  up  at  once,"  thought  Miss 
Mar}''.  "  That  is  a  good  sign.  But  Julius 
does  not.  She  yields ;  he  resists.  I  feel  en- 
couraged about  her,  and  discouraged  about 
him;  for  I  see  in -her  submission,  but  in  him 
'pertinacity. 


100  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


PERTINACITY. 

When  the  time  arrived  for  closing  the 
school  that  day,  Miss  Mary  asked  the  chil- 
dren to  put  away  the  hooks  as  silently  as  they 
could,  and  prepare  to  listen  to  the  closing 
exercises.  The  children  obeyed;  but  Miss 
Mary  heard  a  good  deal  of  rattling  and  noise. 
Dovey  was  making  some  noise  on  purpose, 
for  the  pleasure  of  hearing  it,  and  Julius  and 
several  others  made  noise  accidentally,  by 
carelessly  tumbling  their  slates  and  rules  into 
their  desks. 

Miss  Mary  then  struck  her  little  bell,  and 
all  the  scholars  stopped  their  operations  to 
hear  what  she  wished  to  say.  She  told  them 
that  they  made  too  much  noise,  and  she 
wished  them  to  be  more  still.  They  then 
began  again  to  put  their  books  in,  and  all 
tried  to  be  more  still,  except  Julius,  who  went 
on  pretty  much  as  before,  and  when  he  had 
got  his  books  in,  he  folded  his  arms  across 
upon  his  desk,  and  laid  his  head  down  upon 
them.  Dovey,  after  putting  her  books  away, 
crept  down  from  her  chair,  and  began  to  pick 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  101 

up  the  little  bits  of  paper  from  the  floor. 
When  she  had  taken  up  those  immediately 
under  her  desk,  she  crept  along  upon  her 
hands  and  knees  under  Henry's  and  Rollo's, 
and  was  just  going  to  prick  their  ankles  a 
little  with  a  pen  for  fun,  when  she  heard 
Miss  Mary  say, 

"  Now,  children,  I  want  you  all  to  sit  up- 
right in  your  seats,  and  look  at  me,  and  listen 
to  what  I  have  to  say.  7 

This  recalled  Dovey  to  a  sense  of  the  im- 
propriety of  her  conduct,  and  she  scrambled 
back  to  her  place.  Rollo  and  Henry  heard 
her  and  looked  down,  and  they  could  hardly 
help  laughing,  though  they  thought  she  was 
a  very  naughty  girl  indeed.  Julius  paid  no 
attention  to  what  Miss  Mary  said,  but  kept 
his  head  down  as  before. 

"  Sit  up,  Julius,"  said  Miss  Mary. 

Julius  raised  his  head  slowly  and  reluc- 
tantly, and  turned  sideways  a  little,  so  as  to 
look  away  from  Miss  Mary. 

"  Turn  this  way,  Julius,"  said  Miss  Mary, 
pleasantly.  "I  want  all  the  children  to  look 
towards  me  and  hear  what  I  am  going  to  say." 

Julius  turned  round  a  little  towards  Miss 
Mary,  but  moved  his  eyes  as  far  as  he  could 
away  from  where  she  was  sitting. 
9* 


102  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

The  rest  of  the  children  looked  towards 
her  attentively,  and  she  began  thus : — 

"  I  have  been  thinking,  for  some  days  past, 
that  perhaps  it  will  be  necessary  for  me  t6 
send  one  of  the  scholars  away  from  school." 

Here  a  little  girl,  who  sat  on  a  low  seat 
before  Miss  Mary,  suddenly  looked  up;  hex 
eye  brightened,  she  clapped  her  hands  gently, 
and  said,  almost  aloud, 

"Oh,  lam  glad  of  it.' 

"Why  are  you  glad  of  it,  Jenny?"  said 
Miss  Mary. 

Jenny  looked  a  little  abashed  when  she 
found  she  had  spoken  so  loud ;  but  she  an- 
swered timidly, 

"  Because  she  pushes  me  down." 

"She?  who?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"Dovey,"  said  the  little  girl. 

The  truth  was,  Jenny  had  heard  the 
scholars  proposing  to  Miss  Mary  to  send 
Dovey  away  from  school,  and  as  Dovey 
had  been  rude  and  rough  to  her  once  or 
twice  in  the  recess,  she  was  glad  when  she 
heard  Miss  Mary  say  she  was  going  to  send 
one  of  the  scholars  away.  She  had  no 
doubt  that  Miss  Mary  meant  Dovey.  All 
the  scholars  thought  so  too. 

"  But  it  is  not  Dovey  that  I  am  thinking 
of  sending  away,"  said  Miss  Mary. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  103 

Here  all  the  scholars  looked  surprised,  and 
some  a  little  disappointed.  They  began  to 
look  around  the  room,  wondering  who  it 
could  be.  They  could  not  think  of  any 
scholar  who  was  so  troublesome  as  Dovey. 
In  fact  there  was  not  any,  and  if  Miss  Mary 
had  been  influenced  solely  by  the  considera- 
tion of  present  trouble,  in  sending  away  one 
of  her  scholars,  Dovey  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  the  one  to  go. 

"I  did  think  that  I  should  probably  have 
to  send  Dovey  away,  and  I  do  not  know  but 
that  I  shall  have  to  do  it  yet,"  said  Miss 
Mary,  "but  I  am  in  hopes  I  shall  not.  I 
suppose,  however,  you  all  think  that  Dovey 
is  worse  than  any  other  child  in  the  school." 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  the  children. 

"I  don't  know  but  that  is  true,"  said  Miss 
Mary.  "  I  do  not  think  that  there  is  any  one 
who  does  so  many  mischievous  and  trouble- 
some things;  and  yet  there  is  a  very  good 
reason  why  I  should  not  send  her  away  at 
present." 

The  children  looked  surprised,  but  they 
did  not  speak. 

"Do  you  know  what  a  hospital  is?"  said 
Miss  Mary. 

The  children  did  not  know. 


104  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

u  It  is  a  large  institution  where  sick  persons 
are  taken  in  to  be  healed.  They  have  rooms 
for  them,  and  beds,  and  good  physicians  and 
medicines ;  and  as  soon  as  they  get  well  they 
go  away.  Also,  if  they  find  that  they  do  not 
get  any  better,  and  there  is  no  prospect  that 
they  will  ^get  better,  they  are  then  generally 
sent  away  to  their  home  and  friends  again, 
because  it  would  do  them  no  good  to  stay 
any  longer." 

The  children  listened  to  this  very  atten- 
tively, and,  after  a  moment's  pause,  Miss 
Mary  continued. 

"Now  there  were  once  two  sick  boys  ad- 
mitted to  a  hospital  together, — James  and 
John.  James  was  quite  sick  ;  but  John  was 
a  great  deal  sicker.  He  was  very  sick  in- 
deed. They  remained  a  week  or  two,  and 
John,  who  was  the  sickest,  began  to  get  bet- 
ter, but  James  was  not  any  better  at  all,  and 
there  was  no  prospect  that  he  ever  would  be. 
Now  which  one  of  these  do  you  suppose  the 
governor  of  the  hospital  would  send  back  to 
his  friends?" 

"John,"  said    the  children. 

"  But  James  was  the  sickest." 

"  Yes,  but  he  was  getting  better,"  said  one 
of  the  children. 


HOLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  105 

"That  is  right,"  said  Miss  Mary.  "A 
sick  person  who  is  getting  better  is  called 
a  convalescent.  I  want  you  all  to  say  conva- 
lescent." 

So  all  the  children  spoke  the  word. 

"  Con-va-les-cent"  said  Miss  Mary  again, 
very  slowly  and  plainly;  she  wished  to  make 
them  perfectly  familiar  with  the  word. 

"  On  the  other  hand,"  continued  Miss 
Mary,  "a  sick  person  who  is  not  getting 
any  better,  and  shows  no  signs  that  he  ever 
will,  is  called  an  incurable.1'' 

"  Then  will  he  die?"  said  Henry. 

"  Perhaps  so,  or  he  may  continue  to  live, 
sick,  a  long  time. 

"  Now  if  I  were  the  governor  of  a  hospital, 
perhaps  I  should  send  away  the  incurables, 
unless  I  had  good  accommodations  for  keep- 
ing them  without  injury  to  the  other  patients ; 
but  I  should  be  very  unwilling  to  send  away 
the  convalescents,  until  they  had  got  well." 

The  children  did  not  say  any  thing,  but 
they  all  thought  that  they  should  do  so  too. 

"Now  a  school,"  resumed  Miss  Mary,  "is 
in  some  respects  like  a  hospital.  Children 
are  sent  here  partly  to  be  cured  of  their 
faults  and  improved  in  character.  If  any 
children  have  bad  characters,  they  may  be 


106  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

said  to  be  morally  diseased  or  sick,  and  I 
want  to  cure  them. 

"  Now  if  a  very  bad  boy  should  come  into 
this  school,  with  a  great  many  faults  and  bad 
traits  of  character,  if  I  found  that  he  was 
willing  to  give  up  his  faults,  and  to  try  to 
improve,  I  should  consider  him  convalescent ; 
and  I  would  not  send  him  away,  even  if  his 
faults  were  very  numerous  and  troublesome 
indeed. 

"  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  seemed  to 
love  his  faults  and  cling  to  them,  and  when  I 
told  him  of  them  was  sullen  and  ill-humor- 
ed, and  would  not  try  to  correct  them,  then 
it  would  do  no  good,  but  only  occasion  use- 
less trouble,  to  have  him  remain.  So  I  should 
very  probably  consider  him  an  incurable  and 
send  him  away." 

"Am  I  an  incurable?"  asked  Francis. 

"  Perhaps  I  had  better  not  answer  that 
question  directly,  but  I  will  tell  you  the 
marks  of  an  incurable;  and  then  you  can 
all  judge  for  yourselves.  But,  after  all,  I  do 
not  think  that  incurable  is  the  best  word,  on 
the  whole,  for  that  means  a  patient  who 
never  can  get  well,  whereas  I  mean  one  who 
is  growing  worse  rather  than  better  now.  A 
boy  may  be  growing  worse  rather  than  bet- 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  107 

tor  now,  and  yet  lie  may  possibly  begin  to 
grow  a  good  boy  by  and  by." 

"  What  shall  we  call  them  then? "  said  Rollo. 

"I  hardly  know,"  said  Miss  Mary.  "If 
the  physicians  only  had  a  general  name  for 
their  patients  who  are  growing  worse,  and 
another  for  those  who  are  getting  better,  they 
would  be  just  the  words. 

"However,  we  will  not  stop  to  look  up 
names  for  them.  There  are  some  scholars  in 
this  school  who  seem  desirous  to  improve. 
When  1  tell  them  of  their  faults,  they  are 
good-natured  about  it,  and  try  to  correct  them. 
When  I  give  them  any  directions,  they  obey 
cordially  and  willingly.  When  I  point  out 
anything  to  them  which  is  wrong,  they  seem 
willing  to  change  it  at  once  and  fully." 

Just  then,  while  Miss  Mary  was  speaking, 
the  children  heard  the  sound  of  music  at  a 
distance,  and  they  all  began  to  listen.  Miss 
Mary  stopped  to  listen  too,  for  she  knew  that 
it  was  hardly  reasonable  to  expect  that  the 
children  could  attend  very  profitably  to  her 
advice  and  instructions  while  music  was  com- 
ing. 

"  Hark  !  what  is  that?  "  said  Miss  Mary. 

"  Music,"  said  some  of  the  children,  start- 
ing up. 


J  08  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

"  It  is  coming  here,  Miss  Mary,"  said  Fran- 
cis. "  I  wish  you  would  let  me  go  out  and 
hear  it." 

Some  of  the  children  stood  up  and  tried  to 
look  out  of  the  window,  others  sat  still  listen- 
ing, their  eyes  beaming  with  delight.  Julius 
leaned  his  head  as  far  out  of  the  window  as  he 
could,  trying  to  see ;  and,  an  instant  after,  as 
the  music  advanced  round  a  corner,  and  the 
sound  burst  out  more  loud  and  full,  Dovey, 
who  had  evidently  been,  from  the  first,  very 
much  excited,  could  contain  herself  no  long- 
er, but  she  jumped  up,  exclaiming,  "Oh,  here 
they  come,  here  they  come,"  and  darted  off 
out  of  school. 

"Children,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "I  want  you 
ail  to  take  your  seats  and  look  at  me." 

The  children  obeyed.  Some  turned  around 
rather  slowly  and  reluctantly;  but  yet  all 
obeyed,  except  Julius,  who  still  kept  his  head 
out  of  the  window. 

"Julius,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "take  your  seat." 

Julius  slowly  took  in  his  head  and  sat 
down.  He  looked,  however,  very  much  out 
of  humor,  and  he  leaned  his  elbow  upon  his 
desk  and  his  cheek  upon  his  hand  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  turn  his  face  still  to  the  window, 
and  thus  he  continued  to  look  out. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  109 

"  Sit  still  now  and  listen  to  me.  Rollo,  you 
may  go  out  and  call  Dovey  in,  and  then  you 
may  go  into  the  road  and  see  what  the  music 
is.  I  presume,  from  the  sound,  that  it  is  a 
man  with  an  organ.  If  it  is,  ask  him  to  come 
inside  of  the  gate,  and  wait  a  few  minutes, 
until  the  school  is  dismissed,  and  that  then 
we  should  like  to  have  him  play  a  little," 

Miss  Mary  had  some  doubt  whether  Dovey 
would  come  in.  She  thought,  however,  that 
if  she  should  do  so,  it  would  be  pretty  good 
proof  she  meant  to  obey  Miss  Mary  and  be  a 
better  girl. 

When  Rollo  went  out  upon  the  stone  step 
he  found  that  Dovey  had  gone  into  the  road, 
and  he  went  on  after  her.  There  was  an  old 
blind  man  there,  and  a  boy  with  him,  and  the 
blind  man  was  playing  upon  an  organ.  Do- 
vey was  standing  by  the  side  of  them,  look- 
ing at  the  organ  and  hearing  the  music. 

"  Oh  come,  Rollo,  come,"  said  Dovey  as 
soon  as  she  saw  him. 

"  Miss  Mary  says  that  you  must  come  in." 

"Did  she?"  said  Dovey;  "well,  I  shan't 
come — yes  I  will,  too,  I'll  go  right  in." 

So  she  left  the  musician,  and  went  through 
the  gate,  and  ran  off  to  the  school-room. 

Rollo  gave  his  message  to  the  organist,  and 
10 


110  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

he  siopped  playing,  and  came  inside  of  the 
gate.  Rollo  wanted  to  stop  and  see  the  gold- 
en pipes  which  were  on  the  outside  of  the  or- 
gan, but  he  thought  it  would  perhaps  be  bet- 
ter not  to  do  it,  so  he  went  directly  back  into 
the  school-room  and  took  his  seat. 

In  the  mean  time  the  music  had  ceased, 
and  the  children  were  able  once  more  to  at- 
tend to  Miss  Mary.  She  said  that  she  had 
but  a  very  little  more  to  say  upon  the  sub- 
ject at  that  time,  and  that  was,  that  the  trait 
of  character  which  she  had  been  describing, 
that  is,  the  one  which  children  exhibited  when 
they  were  disposed  to  cling  to  their  faults  and 
persist  in  them,  was  called  sometimes  perti- 
nacity. 

"Pertinacity/'  she  added,  "  is  adhering  to 
and  persisting  in  what  is  wrong  when  it  is 
pointed  out.  A  little  child  once  was  sitting 
at  the  table,  and  began  to  play  with  the  tea- 
pot handle.  His  mother  told  him  he  must  not 
play  with  the  teapot.  He  took  his  hand  away 
a  minute,  and  then  reached  it  out  again  and 
touched  it  with  the  tip  of  his  finger,  looking 
up  at  the  same  time  at  his  mother  to  see  if 
she  was  observing  him.  She  shook  her  head 
and  told  him  to  take  his  hand  away.  He  took 
it  away  a  little,  but  let  it  lie  on  the  table  with 


R0LL0    AT    SCHOOL.  Ill 

his  finger  pointed  towards  the  teapot.  Now 
that  is  pertinacity ;  an  unwillingness  to  give 
up  when  wrong.  We  see  it  in  a  thousand 
cases  in  school.  Sometimes  I  see  a  boy 
holding  his  book  before  his  mouth  and  whis- 
pering behind  it  to  his  next  neighbor.  I  look 
at  him  and  shake  my  head,  meaning  that  he 
must  not  do  so.  He  sees  me,  but  he  keeps 
his  book  up  just  as  before,  and  tries  to  look 
unconcerned  as  if  he  had  not  been  doing  any- 
thing wrong.  Then  when  I  look  awav  he 
begins  whispering  again.  That  is  pertinaci- 
ty. Dovey  ran  out  of  school  a  short  time 
ago.  That  was  very  wrong ;  but  when  I  sent 
for  her  she  came  in  again  immediately.  She 
did  not  persist  in  her  wrong.  It  is  so  gene- 
rally when  I  tell  her  of  her  faults.  -  I  have 
hope  of  her,  therefore,  that  she  will  be  cured 
of  her  faults,  and  1  shall  not  therefore  at  pre- 
sent send  her  away  from  school.  If  I  send 
any  one  away,  it  will  be  some  one  who  per- 
sists in  the  wrong  that  he  does,  even  if  the 
wrong  things  are  not  half  as  disorderly  and 
troublesome  as  Dovey' s." 

The  children  did  not  know  who  it  was  that 
Miss  Mary  had  in  mind ;  each  one  recollected 
that  he  himself  had  often  shown  a  disposition 
to  conceal  or  defend  or  persist  in  his  faults3  in- 


112  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

stead  of  frankly  and  openly  giving  them  up; 
but  they  all  determined  to  do  so  no  more ;  that 
is,  all  except  Julius,  who  looked  ill-natured  and 
sullen  as  before,  and  still  tried  to  sit  in  such  a 
position  as  to  look  out  of  the  window,  to  en- 
deavor to  see  the  organ. 

After  this,  Miss  Mary  closed  the  school, 
and  then  she  and  all  the  children  went  out 
and  gathered  around  the  organ.  The  old  man 
played  them  several  tunes,  and  one  of  them  was 
a  tune  that,  the  children  knew;  so  Miss  Mary 
proposed  that  he  should  play  it  again  and  that 
the  children  should  sing  it.  They  accord- 
ingly did  so,  and  they  enjoyed  it  very  much. 
Afterwards  Miss  Mary  gave  the  man  a  little 
money,  and  asked  him  also  to  go  into  the 
house  and  get  something  to  eat.  Then  all 
the  children  went  slowly  away. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  113 


ORDER. 

For  some  weeks  after  this,  things  went  on 
very  quietly  and  smoothly  in  school,  and  Rol- 
lo  began  to  make  rapid  progress  in  his  stu- 
dies. He  did  not  attend  to  many  studies,  for 
his  father  preferred  to  have  him  go  on  as 
rapidly  as  possible  in  his  Reading,  Writing, 
and  Arithmetic.  He  used  to  read  in  his  class 
every  morning,  immediately  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  school,  and  then,  for  half  an 
hour,  study  his  spelling  lesson.  After  that  he 
worked  upon  his  Arithmetic  almost  all  the 
forenoon.  He  generally  wrote  in  his  writing- 
book  for  half  an  hour  just  before  the  school 
was  ended. 

Jonas  used  to  talk  with  him  occasionally  in 
the  evenings  about  his  various  pursuits  and 
plans  in  school.  Jonas  advised  him*  to  be 
very  systematic  and  orderly  in  all  that  he 
did, — to  keep  his  desk  perfectly  neat  and  well 
arranged,  and  to  have  as  many  conveniences 
for  study  as  he  could,  so  as  to  make  rapid 
progress.  Jonas  said  that  when  he  went  to 
school  the  boys  wasted  half  their  time  in 
e*  10* 


114  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

looking  for  lost  things,  asking  where  the  les- 
son began,  going  out  after  a  drink  or  a  wet 
sponge,  or  asking  for  ink,  or  a  ruler,  or  a  pen- 
cil. 

Rollo  accordingly  took  a  great  deal  of  pains 
to  arrange  his  desk,  and  to  put  every  thing 
in  it  which  he  wanted.  The  things  which  he 
wanted  to  use  most  he  placed  in  front,  where 
his  hand  would  fall  upon  them  readily.  His 
ruler  and  his  little  leaden  plummet  were 
placed  there.  He  had  also  a  little  shallow 
box,  made  of  pasteboard,  which  his  mother 
had  given  him,  and  in  this  he  kept  his  slate 
pencils,  his  piece  of  india  rubber,  a  small  lead 
pencil,  and  his  erasing  apparatus.  His  eras- 
ing apparatus  was  something  which  Jonas 
had  made  for  him.  Jonas  said  that  when  he 
went  to  school  the  boys  would  sometimes 
make  a  mistake  in  writing,  and  then  would 
try  to  scratch  it  out  with  a  penknife.  But 
this  would  make  a.  sort  of  blister  on  the  paper, 
as  if  a  drop  of  water  had  fallen  upon  the  place, 
Then  when  they  began  to  write  over  the  place 
it  would  blot,  and  thus  generally  the  spot 
looked  worse  than  it  would  have  done  if  they 
had  let  the  mistake  remain.  So  he  said  the 
master  made  an  erasing  apparatus,  to  prevent 
all  this. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  115 

"Erasing?"  said  Rollo,  when  Jonas  told 
him  this, — "  what  is  erasing?" 

"  It  is  ruhbing  out, — erasing  means  rubbing 
out." 

"How  was  the  apparatus  made?"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Why,  first,  we  had  a  piece  of  tin,  about  as 
big  as  my  hand,"  said  Jonas,  "very  smooth." 

"  What  was  that  for?"  said  Rollo. 

"  It  was  to  put  under  the  paper  when  we 
want  to  scratch  anything  out,"  said  Jonas, 
"  because  it  is  necessary  to  have  something 
smooth  and  hard.  The  reason  why  the  boys 
commonly  make  a  swelled  spot  is,  that  they 
have  something  a  little  soft  under  the  leaf, 
such  as  the  other  leaves  of  the  writing-book, 
or  the  baize  of  their  desks,  and  then  the  paper 
gives  a  little  as  the  edge  of  the  knife  passes 
to  and  fro,  and  this  puffs  it  out." 

"  We  might  put  a  book  under  it,"  said  Rol- 
lo ;   "  a  book  cover  is  hard." 

"  Not  very,"  said  Jonas.  "The  leather  is 
soft  and  yields  a  little ;  and  besides,  a  book 
is  so  thick  and  clumsy  that  you  cannot  very 
well  get  it  between  the  leaves." 

"A  slate  is  smooth  and  hard  enough,"  said 
Rollo.  v 


116  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"Yes,  but  the  frame  is  m  the  way,  and 
prevents  the  leaf  lying  down  smoothly  on  it." 

"  Then  a  slate  without  any  frame  would 
do  7"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  but  that  would  be  likely  to  have 
pencil  marks  and  dust  on  it,  which  would 
come  off  upon  the  paper.  Yet  I  suppose  if  a 
slate  had  no  frame,  and  was  perfectly  clean, 
it  would  do  very  well.  But  a  small  piece  of 
tin  is  better  after  all. 

"  Besides  this  piece  of  tin,"  said  Jonas,  "  the 
master  had  a  very  sharp  knife,  which  he  kept 
with  the  tin,  and  never  used  it  for  anything 
else.  And  so  whenever  any  of  us  had  made 
a  mistake,  we  used  to  go  to  the  master  and 
get  his  erasing  apparatus,  and  we  could  gene- 
rally take  it  out  very  neatly." 

So  Jonas  made  Rollo  an  erasing  apparatus. 
He  picked  up  a  piece  of  tin  at  the  door  of  a 
tinman's.  He  contrived  to  make  it  square  in 
this  way.  First  he  marked  a  square  upon  it 
with  a  ruler  and  an  awl.  Then  he  put  the 
irregular  edges  one  after  the  other  into  a  very 
narrow  crack  in  the  barn  floor,  taking  care 
to  have  the  tin  go  down  just  to  the  mark  that 
he  had  made  on  each  side.  Then  he  bent  the 
tin  back  and  forth,  until  it  broke  off  very  near 
these  marks.     Then  he  smoothed  the  edges 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  117 

by  grinding  them  on  the  grindstone.  Jonas 
held  them  on  square  while  Rollo  turned. 
Thus  he  made  the  tin. 

Now  Rollo  had  a  broken  knife  blade  which 
his  father  had  given  him  one  day,  and  which 
he  kept  in  a  little  box  of  playthings  up  stairs. 
Jonas  contrived  to  fix  this  inio  a  handle  of 
walnut  wood,  which  he  got  from  the  wood- 
pile, splitting  it  out  with  an  axe  and  then 
fashioning  it  with  a  knife  and  a  file,  and  af- 
terwards smoothing  it  with  sand-paper.  He 
dyed  it,  too,  black,  with  some  dye  he  had, 
and  rubbed,  afterwards,  hard,  with  something 
he  had  in  a  bottle,  which  gave  it  a  smooth, 
glossy  look.  He  told  Rollo  that  the  blade 
was  not  fastened  in  strong  enough  to  cut 
wood,  or  even  to  mend  a  pen,  but  that  it 
would  do  very  well  for  erasing. 

Rollo  was  very  much  pleased  with  his 
erasing  apparatus,  and  promised  never  to  use 
the  knife  for  any  other  purpose  than  the  one 
for  which  it  was  intended.  He  carried  it  to 
school,  and  kept  it,  with  his  other  small  arti- 
cles, in  the  little  shallow  box  which  we  have 
already  spoken  of. 

His  books  he  placed  in  the  back  side  of  his 
desk,  standing  them  up  upon  their  edges,  so 
that  he  might  take  out  one  without  disturbing 


118  ROLLO    AT   SCHOOL. 

the  rest.  He  had  a  pen-wiper,  which  he  had 
made  himself,  in  one  corner,  and  a  piece  of 
black  cloth,  of  an  oblong  shape,  which  his 
mother  had  given  him  to  lay  his  pen  upon. 
He  was  always  careful  to  wipe  his  pen  before 
putting  it  away,  but  this  cloth  was  an  addi- 
tional precaution,  to  prevent  his  inking  the 
sheet  of  blue  paper  which  he  had  spread  over 
the  bottom  of  his  desk.  On  one  of  the  legs 
of  his  desk,  underneath,  he  fixed  two  little 
brass  knobs,  one  to  hang  his  satchel  upon, 
and  the  other  for  his  slate ;  for  his  slate  took 
up  a  great  deal  of  room  in  his  desk,  and  then 
it  made  a  great  deal  of  noise  taking  it  out 
and  putting  it  in.  So  he  had  a  place  to  hang 
it  up  below. 

Rollo  always  kept  his  desk  neat  outside 
also.  He  did  not  allow  his  books  and  papers 
to  accumulate  there,  but  always  put  away 
every  one  as  soon  as  he  had  done  with  it. 
The  consequence  was  that  his  desk  always 
looked  neat  and  pleasant.  The  other  chil- 
dren used  to  love  to  look  into  it  and  to  see 
his  things. 

One  day  several  of  the  boys  were  standing 
about  RoHo's  desk  in  recess.  He  had  a  pic- 
ture of  a  good  boy  studying  his  lesson  dili- 
gently in  school.     It  was  a  picture  which  Jo- 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  119 

nas  had  given  him,  for  an  example,  as  he  said. 
Rollo  brought  it  to  school,  and  showed  it  to 
Miss  Mary,  and  asked  her  if  he  might  keep  it 
in  his  desk.  The  boys  now  were  standing 
about  Rollo's  desk,  looking  at  this  picture  of 
the  good  scholar. 

"  You  was  a  fool  to  show  it  to  Miss  Mary," 
said  Julius. 

"Why?"  asked  Rollo. 

"  Because  it  was  as  like  as  not  that  she 
would  take  it  away  from  you." 

"  No  she  would  not,— take  it  away  from 
him,"  said  Henry. 

"She  might  have  told  him  to  carry  it 
home,"  said  Julius;  "  but  if  you  had  just  put 
it  in  your  desk  without  saying  anything,  she 
would  never  have  known  anything  about  it." 

The  boys  were  talking  in  a  low  voice,  and 
Miss  Mary  was  busy  in  another  part  of  the 
room,  and  they  supposed  that  she  did  not 
hear  them.  But  she  did  hear  them  ;  and  she 
listened  to  hear  what  Rollo  would  say  to  this. 
Bat  Rollo  did  not  say  anything.  He  knew 
that  this  would  have  been  wrong,  but  he  did 
not  know  exactly  what  to  say,  so  he  was 
silent,  and  all  the  boys  were  silent,  so  that 
there  was  a  pause  in  the  conversation. 

Miss  Mary  then  spoke  herself  and  said, 


120  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"Now  I  think,  Julius,  that  Rollo  was  very 
wise  to  ask  my  permission  to  keep  the  picture 
here,  for  now  he  feels  that  he  has  a  full  right 
to  do  so.  If  he  had  not  asked  me,  he  would 
have  had  a  secret  feeling  that  he  was  wrong, 
and  would  have  had  to  hide  the  picture  when- 
ever he  saw  me  coming.  He  would  have 
been  all  the  time  afraid  that  I  should  find  out 
that  he  had  it;  and  so  the  picture,  instead  of 
being  a  source  of  enjoyment,  would  only  have 
made  him  anxious  and  uneasy." 

The  children  were  surprised  to  perceive 
that  Miss  Mary  had  heard  them.  Rollo  was 
pleased,  but  Julius  looked  ashamed.  Rollo 
was  very  glad  that  he  had  shown  Miss  Mary 
the  picture. 

"I  am  going  to  fasten  it  up,"  said  he,  "up- 
on the  inside  of  the  lid  of  my  desk,  exactly  in 
the  middle,  and  then  every  time  I  open  the 
desk  I  shall  see  it." 

"  How  shall  you  fasten  it?"  said  Henry. 

"  With  little  bits  of  wafers  upon  the  cor- 
ners." 

Rollo  then  took  out  from  his  shallow  box 
a  little  paper,  which  was  folded  up  neatly, 
and,  after  opening  it,  he  took  out  a  wafer. 
With  his  knife  he  cut  it  into  quarters,  and 
then  went  and  asked  Miss  Mary  if  she  had 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  121 

any  objection  to  his  wafer  in  g  his  picture  up 
upon  the  under  side  of  his  lid.  She  said  she 
had  not.  and  he  accordingly  fastened  it  there, 
exactly  in  the  middle. 

"  How  beautifully  your  desk  looks,"  said 
one  of  the  girls  who  were  standing  by.  "  1 
can't  keep  mine  in  order,  possibly." 

"  Can't?"  said  Rollo;   "  why  not?" 

"  Oh,  I  don^t  know.  I  put  it  in  beautiful 
order  a  week  or  two  ago,  when  Miss  Mary 
talked  with  us  about  it,  and  now  it  looks 
shockingly." 

"I  am  determined  I  will  have  mine  in  or- 
der," said  Dovey.  "I  mean  to  fix  it  every 
week.     Saturday  will  be  a  good  day." 

"That  never  will  do,"  said  Rollo;  "you 
can't  keep  it  in  order  so." 

"  Then  I  will  put  it  in  order  every  day," 
said  Dovey. 

"  That  won't  do  either,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Then  I  will  put  it  in  order  every  half 
day,  forenoon  and  afternoon,  in  the  recess." 

"No  you  won't,"  said  Rollo. 

"  Yes  I  will,"  said  Dovey. 

"  I  tell  you  you  won't,"  said  Rollo.  "You 
never  will  keep  your  desk  in  order  so." 

"  How  do  you  know?"  said  Dovey. 

"Because  people  can't  keep  their  things  in 

/      n 


122  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

order  by  putting  them  in  order  often,— they 
must  not  let  them  get  out  of  order  at  all." 

"  Who  told  you  that?"  said  Dovey. 

"  Jonas,"  said  Rollo. 

"  I  knew  somebody  told  you.  I  knew  you 
could  not  find  it  out  yourself." 

Rollo  felt  a  little  provoked  to  hear  Dovey 
speak  so;  he  concluded,  however,  that  he  had 
better  be  good-natured  about  it,  and  was  go- 
ing to  tell  something  more  which  Jonas  had 
said  about  order,  when  suddenly  he  saw  that 
Dovey  had  his  erasing  knife,  which  she  had 
taken  up  from  the  desk,  and  was  just  going 
to  cut  off  the  top  of  a  pen  with  it.  He  in- 
stantly reached  out  his  hand  to  take  it  away, 
but  before  he  could  do  so  Dovey  gave  the 
stroke,  the  blade  broke  from  the  handle  and 
dropped  upon  the  floor. 

At  this  instant  the  bell  rung.  This  bell, 
which  indicated  the  close  of  the  recess,  was 
the  signal  for  the  scholars  to  stop  their  talk 
and  play,  instantaneously,  and  take  their  seats. 
The  group  around  Rollo' s  desk  were  silent  in 
a  moment.  Rollo  took  up  the  parts  of  his 
knife  and  tried  to  put  them  together,  looking 
reproachfully  at  Dovey,  who  slowly  moved 
backwards  towards  her  seat,  with  a  counte- 
nance expressive  of  great  concern.     The  rest 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  123 

of  the  children  went  away,  looking  back  to- 
wards Rollo's  desk,  as  they  one  by  one  went 
to  their  seats,  and  Rollo  himself  put  the 
pieces  of  his  erasing  knife  into  his  desk,  shut 
down  the  lid,  laid  his  arm  upon  it,  and  rested 
his  forehead  upon  his  arm.  His  eyes  were 
filled  with  tears. 

At  first  he  felt  very  much  vexed  and  pro- 
voked with  Dovey  for  breaking  his  knife,  but 
then  he  soon  reflected  that  she  probably  did 
not  intend  to  break  it.  It  was  an  accident, 
and  did  not  proceed  from  any  ill  will  or  inten- 
tion to  injure  him.  He  thought,  also,  that 
probably  Jonas  would  be  able  to  fix  it  in 
again  as  well  as  before ;  so  he  dried  his  tears, 
and  began  to  attend  to  his  studies. 

Dovey  felt  very  sorry  to  think  that  she  had 
broken  Rollo's  knife,  but  she  did  exactly  the 
wrong  thing  about  it.  As  soon  as  school  was 
done,  feeling  a  little  ashamed  to  see  or  speak 
to  Rollo,  she  went  out  immediately,  and 
walked  off  directly  home.  This  was  very 
unwise.  It  would  have  been  a  great  deal 
better  if  she  had  come  to  Rollo  at  once,  and 
told  him  that  she  was  very  sorry  that  she  had 
broken  his  knife,  and  offered  to  do  anything 
in  her  power  to  repair  the   damage.     This 


124  rollo  at  school. 

would  have  soothed  Rollo's  feelings  very 
much,  and  it  would  have  relieved  Dovey's 
mind  too. 

When  Rollo  came  to  school  the  next  morn- 
ing, with  his  slate  under  his  arm,  he  found 
Henry  and  some  other  children  sitting  on  the 
stone  step  before  the  door  of  the  school-room. 
They  had  their  heads  together,  and  appeared 
to  be  looking  very  intently  at  something  which 
Henry  had,  who  was  sitting  in  the  middle  of 
the  group,  the  rest  crowding  thickly  around 
him. 

"Boys,  what  have  you  got  there?"  asked 
Rollo  as  he  came  in  at  the  gate. 

"Oh,  here  comes  Rollo,"  said  Henry;  "he 
will  do  it  for  us." 

As  Rollo  came  up,  he  saw  that  it  was  a 
mouse  trap.  There  was  a  mouse  hole  in  a 
little  closet  in  the  school-room,  and  once  or 
twice  the  children  had  seen  the  mouse  creep- 
ing out  slily  into  the  room.  One  of  the  chil- 
dren, who  had  a  mouse  trap,  had  asked  Miss 
Mary  if  he  might  bring  it  to  school,  and  try 
to  catch  him.  and  she  had  consented.  So  the 
boy  had  brought  the  trap. 

It  was  a  wire  trap,  with  a  little  swinging 
door,  so  contrived  that  the  mouse  could 
creep  in,  but,  once  in,  could  not  get  out  again. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  125 

This  door  was,  however,  out  of  order  a  little, 
and  would  not  open,  and  Henry  was  trying 
some  way  to  put  the  bait  in.  He  found  it  diffi- 
cult, however,  and  he  was  very  glad  to  see 
Rollo  coming,  for  he  thought  that  he  could  do 
it  better. 

Rollo  stood  looking  at  it  a  moment,  while 
Henry  showed  him  the  difficulty,  and  asked 
him  if  he  thought  he  could  make  the  door  open. 

"  Yes,  we  must  bend  that  wire  in  a  little 
there.  Here,  if  you  will  take  my  slate  and 
carry  it  in,  I  will  try." 

Henry  took  the  slate,  and  Rollo  took  the 
trap.  Henry  stopped  a  moment  to  see  how 
Rollo  would  do  it,  and  then  put  the  slate 
down  upon  the  stone  behind  him. 

"  But  you  must  carry  my  slate  in,"  said 
Rollo. 

"  Oh,  let  it  lie  there  a  minute,"  said  Hen- 
ry.    "I  will  carry  it  in  presently." 

"  No,  that  is  not  its  place,"  said  Rollo.  ul 
must  not  let  it  stay  there." 

And  he  began  to  put  down  the  trap,  in  or- 
der to  carry  the  slate  in  himself. 

But  Henry  took  it  up  again,  saying,  "Well, 
I  will  carry  it  in,  for  I  want  you  to  mend  the 
trap  quick,  so  that  we  can  set  it  before 
school." 

11* 


126  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Henry  accordingly  took  the  slate  in,  and 
just  as  he  was  disappearing  through  the  door, 
Rollo  called  to  him  to  hang  it  up  upon  the 
nail  under  his  desk.  Then  Rollo  sat  down 
and  began  to  work  upon  the  trap. 

In  a  minute  Henry  returned  and  began  to 
look  over  Rollo. 

"  Did  you  carry  my  slate  in?"  said  Rollo. 

"Yes,"  said  Henry. 

"  And  did  you  hang  it  on  the  nail?" 

"No,"  said  Henry;  "I  did  not  see  any 
nail,  and  so  I  just  slipped  it  into  your  desk." 

"Oh,  that  never  will  do,"  said  Rollo; 
"  that  is  not  the  place." 

"  Well,  never  mind  now ;  you  can  put  it  on 
the  nail  when  you  go  in." 

But  Rollo  seemed  unwilling  to  leave  it  so. 
He  laid  down  the  trap  and  went  in  to  put  his 
slate  where  it  belonged.  Presently  he  re- 
turned again,  and  began  once  more  upon  the 
trap. 

"  Now  you  will  not  have  time  to  get  it 
mended  and  set  before  school,"  said  Henry. 
"  Why  could  you  not  let  it  stay  so  a  little 
while?" 

"Oh,  because,"  said  Rollo,  "it  would 
break  the  charm." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  127 

"Break  the  charm!"  said  Henry,  with  a 
tone  of  contempt 

"  Yes,"  said  Rollo,  u  it  would  "break  the 
charm." 

"What  do  you  mean  hy  breaking  the 
charm?"  said  one  of  the  girls,  who  was  stand- 
ing by. 

"Why,  Jonas  told  me  that  the  only  way  to 
keep  things  in  order,  is  never  to  put  anything 
down,  even  for  a  minute,  out  of  its  place;  it 
breaks  the  charm,  and  then  pretty  soon  every 
thing  gets  out  of  order." 

"Is  that  it?"  said  the  girl. 

"Yes,  that's  it  exactly,"  said  a  voice  be- 
hind the  children,  which  sounded  like  Miss 
Mary's.  The  children  looked  round,  and  saw 
Miss  Mary  looking  at  them  out  of  the  win- 
dow. 

"Jonas  has  got  the  philosophy  of  it,  exact- 
ly," she  continued.  "  But  who  is  Jonas, 
Rollo?" 

"  He  is  the  boy  that  lives  at  our  house." 

"  Oh, — I  recollect  now ;  I  have  seen  him. 
Is  he  a  good  boy?" 

"Yes,"  said  Rollo;  "he  is  a  very  good 
boy." 

"  And  he  taught  you  how  to  keep  things  in 


128  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

order ; — but  what  was  that  that  he  said  about 
breaking  the  charm?     Tell  me  again." 

"Why,"  said  Rollo,  "one  day,  just  after 
father  had  got  his  new  toolhouse  done,  Jonas 
and  I  put  in  all  the  garden  tools  into  it,  all  in 
fine  order ;  and  then,  just  as  we  were  coming 
away,  we  looked  around  to  see  how  beauti- 
fully it  looked,  and  Jonas  said,  '  There,  that  is 
complete,  and  now  it  will  be  a  very  handsome 
toolhouse,  if  we  only  look  out  well  and  do  not 
break  the  charm.'  And  I  asked  him  what  he 
meant  by  that,  and  he  said  that  the  first  time 
he  or  I  came  and  put  a  tool  down  any  where 
but  in  its  right  place,  it  would  break  the 
charm,  and  that  pretty  soon  it  would  all  go  to 
confusion ;  but  that  if  we  never  put  one 
down  except  in  the  right  place,  the  charm 
would  hold,  and  the  toolhouse  keep  in  order 
of  itself  forever." 

"What, — forever?"  said  a  little  boy  who 
stood  by,  in  a  tone  of  great  surprise. 

"  Yes,  forever,"  said  Rollo,  positively. 

"  Would  it,  Miss  Mary?"  said  the  little  boy, 
appealing  to  her. 

"  Why,  you  can  try  it,"  said  Miss  Mary, 
"  in  your  desk.  You  can  put  it  all  in  order, 
and  then  be  very  careful  never  to  put  any 
thing  down,  even  for  an  instant,  out  of  its 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  129 

proper  place,  and  see  how  long  it  will  be  be- 
fore you  will  have  to  put  it  in  order  a  gain. '; 

The  children  had  all  been  so  much  inte- 
rested in  this  conversation,  that  they  had  al- 
most forgotten  the  trap.  Rollo  had  held  it  in 
his  hand,  but  both  he  and  the  others  had  been 
looking  around  at  Miss  Mary ;  and  now  the 
bell  rang  for  them  all  to  go  into  school.  They 
accordingly  put  the  trap  down  by  side  of  the 
portico,  and  all  went  in. 

Now  Miss  Mary  knew  that  Dovey  had 
broken  Rollo's  knife  the  day  before,  and  she 
thought  that  it  would  afford  her  a  very  good 
opportunity  to  see  whether  she  was  disposed 
to  do  her  duty,  when  she  knew  what  it  was, 
or  was  inclined  pertinaciously  to  cling  to  her 
faults.  So  she  read  that  morning  at  prayers 
a  passage  from  the  Old  Testament,  which  con- 
tained, among  others,  the  following  verses 

"  If  a  man  shall  cause  a  field  or  vineyard  to  be  eaten, 
and  shall  put  in  his  beast  and  shall  feed  in  another  man's 
field ;  of  ihe  Dest  of  his  own  field,  and  of  the  best  of  his 
own  vineyard,  shall  he  make  restitution. 

"  If  a  fire  break  out  and  catch  in  thorns,  so  that  the 
stacks  of  corn,  or  the  standing  corn,  or  the  field  be  con- 
sumed therewith  ,  he  that  kindled  the  fire  shall  surely 
make  restitution." — Ex.  22  :  5,  6. 

From  these  verses  she  made  some  remarks 


130  KOLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

about  the  duty  of  making  restitution,  when 
we  do  an  injury  to  any  person,  whether  the 
injury  were  done  accidentally  or  on  purpose. 
She  explained  to  the  children  that  the  first 
verse  related  to  intended  and  the  latter  to  acci- 
dental injuries. 

"We  can  make  restitution  in  various  ways," 
she  said.  "If  we  injure  or  destroy  anything 
belonging  to  any  other  person,  we  can,  per- 
haps, give  them  another  just  like  it,  if  we  have 
one ;  or  we  can  pay  them  in  money ;  or  we 
can,  perhaps,  help  get  it  mended  :  or  if  we 
cannot  do  any  of  these  things,  we  can,  perhaps, 
give  them  something  else,  or  do  something  for 
them  which  will  repay  them." 

Miss  Mary  made  some  other  remarks  of  a 
similar  kind.  The  children  listened  to  them 
very  attentively,  and  several  of  them  thought 
of  Rollo's  knife.  Henry  determined  that  in 
the  recess  he  would  tell  Dovey  that  she  ought 
to  make  restitution  to  Rollo. 

Accordingly,  when  they  were  sitting  out 
upon  the  step,  working  on  the  trap,  Henry  said, 

"  Dovey,  didn't-you  know  you  ought  to 
pay  Rollo  for  breaking  his  knife?" 

"  I  haven't  got  any  money,"  said  Dovey. 

"  Then  you  ought  to  give  him  something 
else,"  said  Henry. 


ROLLO   AT   SCHOOL.  131 

"  But  I  have  not  got  anything  else  to  give 
him,"  said  Dovey. 

"Not' anything?" 

"  No,  not  anything,"  said  Dovey,  thinking, 
— "I  wish  I  had.  I  have  not  got  anything  but 
my  knife  handle,  and  that  is  not  good  for  any- 
thing at  all." 

"  Let  me  see  it,"  said  Rollo. 

So  Dovey  went  into  the  school-room  and 
opened  her  desk,  and  took  out  a  small  calico 
bag.  She  put  her  hand  into  her  bag,  and 
took  out  from  it  a  penknife  handle.  The 
blade  was  gone  entirely,  but  the  handle  was 
whole  and  good. 

"  Oh,  that  is  a  good  handle,"  said  Rollo. 
"  Where  did  you  get  it  ? " 

"  A  boy  gave  it  to  me.  You  may  have  it 
if  you  want  it." 

"Well,"  said  Rollo,  "I  should  like  it 
very  much,  and  Jonas  will  fix  my  blade  into 
it ;  then  it  will  make  a  good  knife, — a  great 
deal  better  than  my  old  one." 

He  then  went  into  the  school-room  to  get 
his  knife  blade,  to  see  whether  it  would  fit. 

Now  there  was  at  the  end  of  this  blade, 
as  there  is,  in  fact,  in  all  penknife  and  jack- 
knife  blades,  a  square  projection,  with  a  small 
hole  through  it.     This  part  is  made  to  go  into 


132  ROLLO   AT   SCHOOL. 

the  end  of  the  handle,  and  there  is  a  small 
hole  in  this  part  of  the  handle,  so  that,  when 
the  blade  is  put  in  properly,  the  hole  in  the 
end  of  the  handle  will  come  exactly  opposite 
to  the  hole  in  the  end  of  the  blade.  Then  a 
short  piece  of  wire  is  put  through,  which 
keeps  the  handle  and  blade  together,  but  the 
blade  will  open  and  shut  by  turning  round  on 
this  wire.  Then  the  ends  of  the  wire  are 
hammered  down  a  little,  to  prevent  its  slip- 
ping out.  The  wire  is  called  a  rivet.  We 
can  generally  see  the  ends  of  the  rivet,  at  the 
opposite  sides  of  a  knife  handle,  at  the  end 
where  the  blade  is  inserted. 

Rollo  tried  the  blade  to  the  handle,  but  was 
very  sorry  to  find  that  it  would  not  fit.  The 
hole  in  the  blade  did  not  come  near  to  the 
holes  in  the  handle.  So  he  thought  that  Jo- 
nas would  not  be  able  to  put  it  in. 

"  You  had  a  knife  blade  the  other  day,  Ju- 
lius," said  a  boy;  "  where  is  it?" 

"  In  my  pocket,"  said  Julius. 

Julius  was  sitting  on  the  step  at  this  time, 
with  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  but  made  no 
move. 

"  Let  us  see  it,  won't  you  ?" 

Julius  made  no  answer,  and  did  not  move. 

"You   ought    to    give    Rollo   your   knife 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  133 

blade, "  said  a  little  girl,  very  timidly,  "  for 
it  was  you  that  broke  his  knife." 

"  I  say  I  didn't,"  said  Julius. 

"  You  did.     I  saw  you." 

"I  tell  you  I  didn't,"  said  Julius.  But  he 
felt  guilty  and  self-condemned,  and  he  got  up 
and  walked  away. 

The  children  then  asked  the  girl  what  she 
meant ;  and  she  said  that  she  saw  Julius  go 
to  Rollo's  desk  the  morning  before,  just  before 
school  began,  and  take  out  the  knife.  She 
said  he  looked  at  it  a  little  while,  and  then 
began  to  cut  the  desk  with  it ;  but  in  a  mo- 
ment she  heard  a  crack,  and  the  knife  blade 
appeared  bent  away  back  against  the  handle. 
Julius  took  it  out,  and,  after  looking  at  it  a 
moment,  fixed  it  back  again  in  its  place,  and 
then  put  the  knife  back  into  the  desk,  and 
went  away. 

This  was  true.  Julius  had  cut  so  hard 
with  the  knife  as  to  pry  out  the  blade,  split- 
ting the  handle  a  little,  and  this  was  the  crack 
that  this  girl  had  heard.  When  Dovey  took 
it.  therefore,  it  was  all  ready  to  drop  out,  and 
did  so  as  soon  as  she  began  to  cut  the  pen. 
The  children  went  in  to  look  at  the  knife 
handle  a^iin,  and  found  the  little  split.  They 
12 


134  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

also  found  the  place  upon  the  desk  which 
Julius  had  cut  with  it. 

Julius  stood  by  his  desk  at  the  other  side 
of  the  room,  eyeing  the  children  with  a  fierce, 
ill-natured  look,  while  they  were  examining 
the  proofs  of  his  guilt.  Dovey  was  very  glad 
to  find  that  she  had  not  actually  broken  the 
knife,  but  she  said  that  Rollo  might  have  her 
old  handle,  notwithstanding,  for  she  had  had 
it  a  good  while  and  was  tired  of  it. 

Henry  then  went  over  to  Julius,  and  said, 

"  You  ought  to  give  Rollo  your  blade,  Ju- 
lius, for  it  was  you  that  broke  his  knife." 

"  I  shan't,"  said  Julius. 

"  Why,  you  broke  his  knife,  and  you  ought 
to  make  restitution ;  Miss  Mary  said  so." 

"  I  don't  care,"  said  Julius;  and  he  got  up 
sullenly  and  walked  away. 

He  said  this  in  a  low  voice,  and  there  were 
other  children  talking  in  various  parts  of  the 
room,  and  so  no  one  heard  it.  Henry  came 
back  to  Rollo,  and  told  him  that  Julius  still 
refused  to  give  him  his  blade. 

"Never  mind,"  said  Rollo.  "Perhaps  Jo- 
nas can  find  some  way  to  fit  mine  in."  So 
he  rolled  up  his  two  handles  and  his  own 
blade  in  a  paper,  and  put  them  in  his  pocket, 


ROLLO   AT   SCHOOL.  137 

and  then  they  all  went  out  and  resumed  their 
work  upon  the  mouse  trap. 

They  succeeded,  at  length,  in  mending  the 
door  so  that  it  would  open  and  shut  easily, 
and  then  Miss  Mary  gave  them  permission  to 
go  round  to  the  kitchen  and  get  a  little  piece 
of  cheese  for  bait.  They  then  carefully  set 
the  trap  in  the  corner  of  the  closet,  and  imme- 
diately afterwards  the  bell  rang  for  the  close 
of  the  recess,  and  they  all  took  their  seats 
again  and  resumed  their  studies. 

That  evening  Rollo  carried  his  new  handle 
to  Jonas,  and  asked  him  if  he  thought  he 
could  fix  it  in. 

Jonas  looked  at  it  and  said,  after  trying  to 
put  the  parts  together,  that  he  thought  the 
blade  would  fit  that  handle  exactly. 

"Why,  no,"  said  Rollo;  "  the  holes  don't 
come  right." 

"  That  is  because  the  spring  is  not  crowded 
back,"  said  Jonas. 

So  he  showed  Rollo  that  the  spring,  which 
runs  along  the  back  of  the  handle,  had  sprung 
itself  in,  beyond  its  proper  place,  and  that 
when  the  blade  was  in  it  would  force  it  back, 
so  as  to  bring  the  holes  just  about  opposite  to 
each  other. 

When,  however,  he  came  to  measure  more 

/* 


138  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

exactly,  he  found  that  the  square  part  of  the 
blade  was  a  little  too  wide  after  all ;  for 
when  the  spring  was  forced  back  it  did  not 
bring  the  hole  in  the  blade  exactly  into  a  line 
with  the  holes  in  the  handle. 

"  It  must  be  filed  a  little,"  said  Jonas. 

"  Can  you  do  it  by  filing  it?"  said  Rollo. 

"I  think  so,"  said  Jonas;  and  they  both 
went  together  to  the  barn  after  a  file. 

Jonas  found  a  little  three-cornered  file  in  its 
place,  by  a  small  workbench,  in  the  barn, 
and,  holding  the  square  part  of  the  blade 
down  upon  the  bench,  he  began  to  file  it. 

But  the  file  seemed  to  slip  back  and  forth 
over  the  steel,  without  taking  hold  at  all. 

"It  is  too  hard"  said  Jonas,  stopping  the 
file,  and  looking  at  the  blade. 

"  What  shall  you  do  now?"  said  Rollo. 

"I  must  soften  it." 

"Soften  it?"  said  Rollo;  "how  can  you 
soften  it?" 

"  I  shall  heat  it  red  hot  and  then  let  it  cool 
slowly,  and  that  will  soften  it." 

"Will  it?"  said  Rollo;  "will  it  make  it 
very  soft?" 

"  Not  very  soft  indeed ;  but  soft  enough  for 
me  to  file  it." 

"How  soft?"  said  Rollo. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  139 

"  Why,  almost  as  soft  as  iron." 

"  Iron  ! "  said  Rollo ;  "  why,  I  think  iron  is 
very  hard, — very  hard  indeed." 

"Oh  no,"  said  Jonas.  "It  is  not  nearly 
as  hard  as  steel,  especially  this  hardened 
steel." 

Jonas  then  took  a  nail,  which  he  said  was 
of  iron,  and  showed  Rollo  that  he  could  file 
that  very  easily;  but  the  file  would  make 
scarcely  any  impression  upon  the  steel. 

"  What  do  they  make  blades  so  very  hard 
for?"  said  Rollo. 

"  They  will  cut  a  great  deal  better,  and 
keep  sharp  longer." 

"Well,  then,  you  will  spoil  the  blade  if  you 
soften  it,"  said  Rollo. 

"  No,"  said  Jonas;  "I  shall  only  soften  this 
square  part." 

"  Yes,  but  when  you  heat  that  all  the  rest 
will  become  hot  too." 

"No,"  said  Jonas;  "  you  will  see  how  I  shall 
prevent  that.     I  will  show  you  after  supper." 

Accordingly,  after  supper  Rollo  came  out 
into  the  kitchen,  and  Jonas  took  the  blade, 
and  also  a  long  narrow  strip  of  brown  paper. 
He  rolled  the  paper  over  and  over  the  blade, 
a  great  many  times,  leaving  the  square  part 
out.     Thus  at  length  all  that  part  of  the  blade 


140  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

which  had  the  sharp  edge  upon  it  was  en- 
veloped in  many  folds  of  brown  paper,  while 
the  square  part  was  exposed.  He  then  tied 
a  string  around  the  paper,  and  dipped  it  into 
water,  so  as  to  wet  it  thoroughly.  Next  he 
drew  out  a  few  burning  coals  upon  the  hearth, 
and  laid  the  square  part  upon  them,  covering 
it  over  completely  with  burning  coals.  Then 
he  kept  dropping  water  upon  the  part  covered 
with  brown  paper,  and  thus  kept  it  wet,  so 
that  it  could  not  get  much  heated.  In  a 
short  time  the  square  part  became  red  hot, 
and  then  he  took  it  away  from  the  coals  and 
let  it  cool  slowly.  In  this  way  it  became  so 
soft  that  he  could  easily  file  it,  and  thus  he 
soon  fitted  it  into  its  place,  without  farther 
difficulty. 

Jonas  then  put  a  piece  of  wire  through  the 
holes,  and  filed  off  the  ends  pretty  near  to 
the  handle  on  each  side.  He  then  hammered 
down  the  ends,  and  thus  made  little  heads  to 
the  rivet,  which  prevented  its  coming  out. 
Rollo  then  found  that  the  blade  would  open 
and  shut  like  any  other  knife,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  carry  it  to  school  the  next  day  and 
show  it  to  Dovey. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  141 


TITLE  TO  PROPERTY 

Two  very  serious  questions  arose  the  next 
day  in  school,  relating  to  the  title  to  property. 
These  difficulties  occurred  in  the  following 
manner. 

When  Rollo  came  to  school  in  the  morning, 
scarcely  any  of  the  children  were  there.  He 
was  so  much  interested  in  showing  Dovey 
and  Henry  his  new  knife,  that  he  walked 
very  fast,  and  so  he  got  there  quite  early. 

So  he  sat  down  upon  the  stone  step,  and 
began  to  make  a  whistle  upon  the  end  of  a 
willow  shoot,  which  he  had  cut  by  the  way. 
He  sloped  off  the  end  for  the  mouth  piece,  cut 
round  the  bark  at  a  proper  distance,  made  the 
little  notch  for  the  wind  hole,  as  he  called  it, 
and  had  just  laid  the  work  across  his  knee 
and  began  to  pound  it  with  the  handle  of  his 
knife,  to  make  the  bark  come  off  easily,  when 
he  saw  Dovey  coming  along  the  road. 

He  immediately  jumped  up  and  went  to 
meet  her,  with  his  whistle  stick  in  one  hand, 
and  holding  out  his  knife  in  the  other. 

"See,  Dovey,  .see  what  a  beautiful  knife 


142  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Jonas  has  made  for  me  out  of  your  old  han- 
dle." 

"  Let  me  see  it,"  said  Dovey,  taking  the 
knife.  "  Why  ! — it  will  open  and  shut,  won't 
it.  What  a  beautiful  knife ! "  So  saying, 
Dovey  shut  it  up,  and  then  began  to  try  to 
open  it  again. 

"Here,  I'll  open  it,"  said  Rollo,  trying  to 
take  it. 

"  No,"  said  Dovey,  holding  it,  and  turning 
away  from  Rollo,  "  1  will  open  it  myself." 

So  Dovey  turned  around  away  from  Rollo, 
and  began  to  open  the  knife,  and  at  the  same 
time  slowly  walked  along. 

Rollo  followed  her,  and  presently  heard 
Dovey  shut  the  knife  up  again. 

"Come,  give  it  to  me,"  said  Rollo.  "I 
want  to  finish  my  whistle." 

"  No,"  said  Dovey,  at  the  same  time  turn- 
ing round  so  as  to  face  Rollo,  but  holding 
the  knife  behind  her  back. 

"  Why,  it  is  mine,"  said  Rollo. 

"  No  it  isn't,"  said  Dovey. 

"Yes  it  is,"  said  Rollo;  "  you  gave  me  the 
handle,  because  you  broke  my  knife,  and  the 
blade  was  mine  before." 

"  No,  it  turned  out  that  I  did  not  break 
your  knife,  and  so  that  goes  for  nothing." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  143 

"But  you  gave  it  to  me  again,  after  you 
knew  that  Julius  broke  my  knife." 

"  I  didn't." 

"You  did." 

"  I  say  I  didn't." 

"  Here  comes  Henry;  I'll  leave  it  to  him," 
said  Rollo  :  for  just  at  this  moment  Henry  was 
coming  in  at  the  gate. 

Dovey  moved  back  a  little,  and  still  held 
the  knife  behind  her.  Henry  came  up,  and 
Rollo  asked  him  if  Dovey  did  not  give  him 
the  handle,  the  day  before,  after  she  knew 
that  Julius  broke  his  knife. 

"Yes,"  said  Henry,  "  she  did.  She  gave 
it  to  you,  at  first,  before  we  found  out  that, 
but  afterwards  she  said  she  did  not  care,  and 
you  might  have  it." 

"Well,  I  don't  care  if  I  did,"  said  Dovey; 
"  I  did  not  mean  you  should  have  it  to  keep 
for  your  own." 

So  saying,  Dovey  walked  away,  Rollo  fol- 
lowing her,  and  looking  very  anxious  and  un- 
happy. They  had  not  taken  many  steps, 
however,  before  they  met  two  or  three  children 
running  out  of  the  school-room  door,  capering 
and  clapping  their  hands,  and  crying  out, 

"  We  have  caught  the  mouse;  come,  Rollo, 
Dovey,  Henry,  we  have  caught  the  mouse." 


144  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

Dovey  and  Henry  ran,  but  Rollo  had  no 
heart  just  then  to  think  of  any  thing  but  his 
knife.  He  walked  along  after  them,  and 
crowded  his  head  at  length  into  the  ring 
which  surrounded  Ihe  trap ;  and  the  sight  of 
the  little  mouse,  with  its  black  eyes  and 
slender  tail,  creeping  around  and  putting  his 
nose  out  between  the  wires,  fairly  drove,  for  a 
minute  or  two,  the  thought  of  his  loss  out  of 
his  head. 

The  children  had  scarcely  done  admiring 
their  little  prisoner,  before  a  question  arose 
as  to  the  right  of  property  in  him.  The  girl 
who  had  brought  the  trap  to  school  insisted 
that  it  was  hers,  because  it  was  caught  in  her 
trap.  The  boy  who  set  the  trap  maintained 
it  was  his.  because  he  was  in  fact  the  one  who 
caught  him.  Rollo  thought  he  had  some  claim, 
because  he  had  mended  the  door  that  was  bro- 
ken. "  Had  it  not  been  for  me,"  said  he,  "  he 
couldn't  have  got  in."  "And  if  I  had  not 
brought  the  bait,"  said  another  boy,  u  he 
wouldn't  have  got  in  if  he  could."  Finally,  to 
complete  the  list  of  conflicting  claims,  one  boy 
said  the  mouse  did  not  belong  to  any  of  them. 
It  was  Miss  Mary's  mouse,  he  said,  for  they 
got  it  out  of  her  school-room. 

Voices  grew  quite  loud  in  defence  of  these 


ItOLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  145 

various  rights,  until  Miss  Mary,  who  heard 
the  noise  of  the  controversy,  suddenly  brought 
it  to  a  close  by  ringing  the  bell  for  the  chil- 
dren to  come  into  school. 

They  accordingly  put  down  the  trap, 
mouse  and  all,  in  a  little  corner  by  the  porti- 
co, and  went  to  their  seats. 

As  Miss  Mary  was  kind  and  indulgent  to 
the  scholars,  and  generally  Jook  an  active  in- 
terest in  their  pursuits  and  pleasures,  they  did 
not  attempt  to  conceal  any  thing  from  her,  but 
in  all  the  questions  that  came  up  among  them 
'they  talked  in  their  usual  tones  of  voice, 
whether  she  was  within  hearing  or  not.  So 
it  happened  that  she  often  heard  their  con- 
versation, and  if  any  thing  took  place  which 
excited  a  good  deal  of  interest  in  school,  she 
generally  knew  all  about  it.  Thus  she  knew 
all  about  the  case  of  Rollo's  knife,  and  also 
about  the  mouse ; — though  she  said  nothing 
to  the  children  about  them  at  the  time. 

Just  before  the  time  for  recess,  she  told  the 
scholars  that  she  understood  that  there  had 
been  some  disputes  about  the  title  to  some 
property,  and  that  she  was  going  to  be  judge 
in  the  recess,  and  hear  and  settle  the  ques- 
tions. She  said  that  she  wished  all  those  chil- 
g  13 


146  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

dren  who  had  been  disputing  about  any  pro- 
perty, of  any  kind,  that  morning,  to  come 
around  her  table  in  the  recess;  and  all  who 
wished  to  hear  the  cases  might  come  also,  and 
stand  near. 

So  when  she  struck  the  bell  for  recess, 
almost  all  the  children  gathered  around  her 
table. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  see  so  many,"  said  Miss 
Mary.  "J  wan^  you  all  to  hear  these  cases. 
Children  at  school  often  get  into  contentions 
about  their  property,  and  by  hearing  how  I 
decide  these  questions  you  will  learn  how  you 
ought  to  act  in  similar  cases  hereafter. " 

Miss  Mary  then  said  that  the  first  thing  was 
to  ascertain  how  many  questions  there  were 
at  issue,  and  what  they  were  about ;  so  she 
asked  all  those  who  had  had  any  dispute  about 
property,  to  hold  up  their  hands,  and  a  great 
many  hands  were  immediately  raised. 

"Rollo,  what  was  your  question  about?" 

"  About  my  knife." 

"  Who  has  got  the  knife?" 

"  Dovey." 

"  Dovey,  bring  it  here." 

So  Dovey  brought  the  knife  and  handed  it 
to  Miss  Mary,  and  Miss  Mary  laid  it  out  be- 
fore her  upon  the  table. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  147 

"George,  what  is  your  question  about?' 
said  Miss  Mary,  then,  to  the  next  boy. 

"  About  the  mouse." 

"  Who  has  got  the  mouse  ?" 

"  It  is  in  the  mouse-trap  out  at  the  door." 

"  Go  and  bring  it  here." 

So  George  went  out  and  brought  the  mouse- 
trap in,  and  handed  it  to  Miss  Mary.  Miss 
Mary  laid  it  upon  the  table  by  the  side  of  the 
knife.  The  mouse  was  frightened  and  ran 
about  the  trap,  putting  his  nose  out  here  and 
there  through  the  wires.  This  put  the  chil- 
dren quite  into  a  frolic.  They  laughed  and 
capered  about  and  pointed  at  him;  and  those 
behind  crowded  their  faces  in  between  the 
others  to  see.  At  length,  however,  the  mouse 
was  still  again,  and  then  the  children  became 
quiet  and  looked  towards  Miss  Mary. 

Miss  Mary  was  willing  that  they  should 
have  a  little  frolic,  both  because  it  was 
recess,  and  because  she  thought  it  would 
make  it  more  easy  for  them  to  acquiesce  good 
naturedly  in  her  decisions. 

"Are  these  all?"  said  Miss  Mary  when 
they  were  still  and  attentive. 

One  more  hand  was  raised. 

"And  what  is  your  question,  John?"  said 
she  to  the  boy. 


148  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

''•  About  my  windmill." 

"  Who  has  got  the  windmill  ?" 

"  Julius." 

"  I  haven't,"  said  Julius,  in  a  surly  tone 
of  voice. 

"  He  had  it  when  the  bell  rang,"  said 
George. 

"  Where  is  it,  Julius?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

Julius  said  he  supposed  it  was  out  in  the 
orchard.  Miss  Mary  told  him  to  go  and  bring 
it  in. 

So  he  went  out  and  brought  the  windmill 
in.  It  was  a  paper  windmill,  made  by  tak- 
ing a  square  piece  of  paper,  and  cutting  from 
near  the  centre  out  to  the  four  corners,  and 
then  bending  over  half  of  each  corner  to  the 
middle,  and  passing  a  pin  through  them  all 
into  a  little  handle.  With  stiff  paper  a  very 
pretty  windmill  may  be  made  in  this  way, 
though  but  few  boys  know  how  to  do  it. 

Julius  handed  the  windmill  to  Miss  Mary, 
and  she  placed  it  upon  the  table  by  the  side 
of  the  other  things. 

"  Now,"  said  she,  "  we  will  take  the  knife 
first.     Rollo,  tell  us  your  story." 

So  Rollo  told  her  all  about  his  knife,  just  as 
the  facts  have  been  related  here ;  and  then 
Dovey  said  she  did  not  give  the  knife  han- 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  149 

die  to  him  to  keep  for  his  own  forever,  but 
she  only  lent  it  to  him ;  and  besides,  she  said, 
if  she  did  give  it  to  him,  she  wanted  it  now, 
and  was  going  to  take  it  back. 

Then  Miss  Mary  asked  the  other  children 
who  were  there  at  the  time,  and  they  said 
that  they  understood  that  Dovey  meant  Rol- 
lo  to  keep  the  knife  for  his  own. 

"  Did  I  say  he  might  keep  it  forever?"  said 
Dovey. 

u  No,  you  did  not  say  that  exactly,"  said 
Henry,  "but  you  said  he  might  have  it,  and 
you  understood  that  he  was  going  to  have  a 
blade  put  in." 

Miss  Mary  made  some  further  inquiries, 
until  she  ascertained  fully  all  the  facts,  and 
then  she  said  as  follows  : 

"  This  is  my  decision.  The  knife  is  Rol- 
lo's.  When  a  person  gives  or  sells  any  pro- 
perty to  any  other  person,  it  is  called  a  convey- 
ance. If  this  is  done  under  such  circumstances, 
and  in  such  a  manner,  as  to  make  the  thing 
fairly  and  fully  the  property  of  the  person  who 
receives  it,  it  is  called  a  valid  conveyance.  If 
it  is  made  in  such  a  way,  or  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, as  not  to  entitle  the  new  posses- 
sor to  it,  it  is  said  to  be  null  and  void,  and 
goes  for  nothing,  Now  the  great  question  is, 
13* 


150  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

whether  Dovey's  giving  the  handle  to  Rollo 
was  a  valid  conveyance  of  it  to  him. 

"  Two  things  are  necessary  to  make  a  va- 
lid conveyance  of  property  among  children, — 
from  Dovey  to  Rollo,  for  instance.  First,  the 
thing  must  actually  belong  to  Dovey,  so  that 
she  has  a  right  to  give  it  away.  If  she  should 
give  Rollo  George's  windmill,  here,  it  would 
be  null  and  void,  for  that  would  not  be  hers  to 
give.  So  if  she  should  give  away  her  bon- 
net, it  would  be  null  and  void,  for  that  is 
more  her  mother's  than  her  own,  and  so  she 
has  no  right  to  give  it  away.  But  the  knife 
handle,  or  any  other  trifling  plaything  of  that 
kind,  is  hers,  and  so  she  had  a  right  to  give  it. 

'  But,  in  the  second  place,  she  must  intend 
to  convey  it,  that  is,  to  give  it  entirely  away. 
If  one  boy  should  say  to  another.  l  May  I  have 
your  knife  V  and  he  should  say  '  Yes,'  think- 
ing he  only  wanted  to  borrow  it  a  few  minutes, 
that  would  not  be  a  conveyance ;  and  yet  he 
said  he  might  have  it,  absolutely,  but  then  he 
did  not  intend  actually  to  make  it  his. 

"  In  the  third  place,  the  person  who  con- 
veys property  must  actually  deliver  it  to  the 
new  owner.  This  completes  the  conveyance, 
and  makes  the  property  fully  and  entirely  his. 
And  this  is  necessary,  for  without  it  the  pro- 


BOLLO   AT   SCHOOL.  151 

perty  does  not  pass.  For  example,  if  a  boy 
were  to  promise  you  a  whistle  and  say  he 
should  bring  it  the  next  day,  and  then  the 
next  day  should  bring  it  and  refuse  to  give  it 
to  you,  you  would  have  no  right  to  take  it. 
It  would  not  be  yours.  His  promise  to  give  it 
to  you  would  not  make  it  yours.  It  is  neces- 
sary that  he  should  actually  deliver  it  to  you 
of  his  own  accord. 

"  Now  these  are  rules  which  men  observe 
in  conveying  property,  and  I  think  they  ap- 
ply as  well  to  children.  And  in  this  case  the 
conveyance  was  valid,  judged  by  these  rules. 
The  handle  was  actually  Dovey's.  She  in- 
tended to  give  it  to  Rollo,  and  she  did  actually 
deliver  it  to  him  with  this  intention.  That 
made  the  conveyance  complete  and  valid,  and 
the  handle  became  absolutely  Rollo's. 

"  But  Dovey  says  that,  admitting  that  she 
did  give  Rollo  the  handle  for  his  own,  she 
altered  her  mind  afterwards,  and  meant  to 
take  it  back  again.  This  is  a  very  common 
thing  among  children,  but  it  is  always  wrong. 
When  a  thing  is  once  really  conveyed  to  ano- 
ther, either  by  exchange,  or  sale,  or  gift,  it  be- 
comes absolutely  his,  and  the  first  owner  has 
no  more  right  to  take  it  again  than  any  other 
person  has  to  take  it  away.  So  that  the  han- 
dle is  clearly  Rollo's,  and  not  Dovey's  at  all. 


152  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"And  yet,  when  a  person  gives  another  a 
thing,  without  receiving  anything  in  return, 
and  is  afterwards  sorry  and  wants  it  back,  1 
think  it  is  best  generally  to  give  it  back. 
You  are  not  obliged  to  give  it  back:  it  is 
yours,  fully,  but  still  I  would  give  it  back 
generally.  If  one  of  the  children  should  give 
me  an  apple,  and  afterwards  want  it  back 
again,  I  should  give  it  back  again.  And  so, 
if  I  were  Rollo,  I  should  ask  Jonas  to  take  out 
the  blade  again,  and  then  give  the  handle 
back  to  Dovey  if  she  wants  it.  But  then, 
Rollo,  you  must  do  just  as  you  please  about  it, 
as  it  is  absolutely  yours,  and  you  can  do  with 
it  as  you  think  best.''* 

Here  Miss  Mary  handed  Rollo  his  knife, 
and  then  turned  to  the  other  cases. 

"  We  will  take  the  windmill  case  next," 
said  Miss  Mary,  "  as  that  is  probably  shorter 
than  the  other.  George,  what  is  the  story 
about  the  windmill?" 

"  Why  I  had  my  windmill  out  there,  and  I 
was  playing  with  it,  and  Julius  came  and 
wanted  it,  and  I  told  him  he  mustn't  have  it, 
and  he  pulled  it  away  from  me  and  ran  otf, 
and  then  the  bell  rung  and  I  had  to  come  in." 

Miss  Mary  then  .turned  to  Julius  and  said, 

"Well,  Julius,  was  it  all  so?" 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  153 

"  I  was  not  going  to  take  it  away  from  him; 
I  only  wanted  to  try  it  a  minute." 

"  But  you  did  take  it  away  from  him, 
didn't  you?" 

"  I  was  going  to  give  it  right  back  to  him 
again." 

"  But  that  was  wrong.  Do  you  know 
what  the  name  of  the  crime  is  that  a  man 
commits  when  he  takes  away  the  property  of 
another  forcibly?" 

Julius  made  no  answer. 

"  It  is  robbery"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"  If  a  man  meets  a  traveller  on  the  road, 
and  takes  away  his  money  by  force,  he  robs 
him  of  it.  If  a  schoolboy  takes  away  a 
plaything  from  another,  he  robs  him  of  it. 
If  he  keeps  it  for  a  day,  then  he  robs  him  of 
it  for  that  day.  If  he  keeps  it  only  a  minute, 
then  he  robs  him  of  it  for  the  minute.  If  you 
take  away  any  body's  property,  however 
small  the  value  of  it  may  be,  and  however 
short  the  time  you  keep  it,  it  is  an  act  of  rob- 
bery. I  hope  all  the  children  will  remember 
this.  It  is  a  very  common  thing  among  chil- 
dren, but  it  is  always  unjust  and  wrong.  If 
the  rightful  owner  of  a  thing  is  not  willing 
that  you  should  take  it,  you  have  no  right  to 
take  it,  even  for  a  moment." 


154  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

So  saying,  Miss  Mary  handed  George  his 
windmill,  and  then  said, 

"  Now  for  the  mouse." 

"  I  think  the  mouse  is  mine,"  said  one  boy, 
"  for  he  was  caught  in  my  trap." 

"But  the  trap  was  not  good  for  anything 
till  I  mended  it,"  said  Rollo. 

"  And  I  set  it,"  said  another  boy. 

"  And  I  got  the  bait,"  said  another. 

Just  at  this  moment  there  was  a  sudden 
jump  and  scream  among  the  children.  The 
mouse  was  out  of  the  trap,  upon  the  table. 
The  children  started  back, — the  mouse  leaped 
off  to  the  floor  and  ran  along,  the  children 
screaming  and  scampering  in  all  directions. 
Some  clambered  upon  the  chairs,  some  upon 
the  desks,  and  others  made  their  escape  out 
of  the  door.  In  short,  the  court  was  broken 
up  in  great  confusion,  the  claimants  vanish- 
ed, and  the  mouse  quietly  withdrew  to  his 
hole. 

How  he  succeeded  in  getting  out  of  the 
trap,  the  children  never  could  find  out  to  this 
day.  Perhaps  Rollo  did  not  fix  the  door  ex- 
actly right.  They  were  all  much  disappoint- 
ed at  losing  him,  but  Miss  Mary  said  that 
she  was  not  very  sorry,  after  all,  for  it  settled 
summarily  a  ma?s  of  conflicting  claims,  the 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 


155 


adjustment  of  which  would  have  involved  a 
good  many  intricate  legal  questions. 

After  school  that  day  Rollo  told  Dovey  he 
had  concluded  to  get  Jonas  to  take  out  his 
blade,  and  then  he  would  give  her  back  her 
handle.  But  she  said  it  was  no  matter.  She 
preferred,  on  the  whole,  that  he  should  keep 
the  handle,  for  his  own,  forever. 


156  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


THE  REASON  WHY. 

One  afternoon,  in  the  recess,  Henry  was 
playing  with  some  Httle  stones  in  the  walk, 
very  near  the  gate,  and  Rollo  and  Dovey  and 
some  other  children  were  sitting  by,  on  the 
grass.  Henry  was  making  a  well.  He  had 
dug  a  small  hole  in  the  walk,  and  had  put 
little  stones  all  around  it  inside,  as  men  stone 
up  a  well,  and  then  he  asked  Dovey  if  she 
would  not  go  in  and  get  some  water  to  pour 
into  his  well. 

"  No,"  said  Dovey.  "  I  can't  go  very  well 
now  ;  I  am  tired." 

"Well,  Rollo,  you  go,  won't  you?" 

"  Why— no— ,"  said  Rollo.  "  I  can't  go- 
very  well." 

He  then  askjd  one  or  two  other  children, 
but  nobody  seemed  inclined  to  go. 

"Oh  dear  me,"  said  Henry,  with  a  sigh. 
"  I  wish  somebody  would  go;  or  else  I  wish 
water  would  come  in  my  well  of  itself,  as  it 
does  in  men's  wells.  I  don't  see  why  it 
won't." 

"It  is  because  your  well  is  not  deep 
enough,"  said  one  of  the  children. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  157 

"Then  I  will  dig  it  deeper,"  said  Henry; 
and  he  took  out  the  stones  and  began  to  dig 
it  deeper,  with  a  pointed  stick,  which  served 
him  for  a  shovel.  But  after  digging  until  he 
was  tired,  his  well  was  as  dry  as  ever. 

"I  don't  see  why  the  water  won't  come  " 
said  he.     "I  mean  to  ask  Miss  Mary." 

"  No  you  mustn't  ask  Miss  Mary,"  said  a 
little  round-faced  boy  standing  there,  with  a 
paper  windmill  in  his  hand. 

"  Yes  I  shall,"  said  Henry. 

"  No  you  mustn't ;  it  is  wrong  to  ask  why." 
."No  it  isn't." 

"Yes  it  is,"  said  George;  "my  mother  said 
so." 

"It  is  not  wrong  to  ask  why,"  said  Rollo; 
"  my  father  said  it  wasn't.     It  is  very  right." 

George  insisted  that  it  was  wrong.  His 
mother  knew,  he  said,  as  well  as  anybody, 
and  she  said  it  was  wrong.  Rolio  was,  how- 
ever, not  convinced ;  and  the  other  children 
took  sides,  some  with  George,  and  some  with 
Rollo;  and,  finally,  after  considerable  dis- 
pute, they  all  arose  and  went  off  in  search  of 
Miss  Mary,  to  refer  the  question  to  her. 

They   entered    the    school-room,    and    all 
crowded  up  around  Miss  Mary's  desk,  Rollo 
and  George  at  the  head. 
14 


158  EOLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

"Is  it  wrong.  Miss  Mary,"  said  Rollo,  "to 
ask  why?" 

"  Isn't  it,  Miss  Mary  V  said  George. 

"  That  depends  upon  circumstances,"  said 
Miss  Mary. 

The  children  did  not  know  what  she  meant 
by  "  depends  upon  circumstances."  and  they 
were  silent.  At  length  one  of  the  children 
said, 

"  George  says  that  his  mother  told  him  it 
was  wrong;  but  Rollo's  father  said  it  was 
right." 

"It  is  quite  an  important  question,"  said 
Miss  Mary.  "  I  will  answer  it  by  and  by,  to 
the  whole  school.  So  you  may  go  out  and 
play  for  the  rest  of  the  recess,  but  do  not  talk 
about  it  any  more  among  yourselves." 

So  the  children  went  out  to  play  until  the 
bell  rang  to  call  them  in. 

At  the  close  of  the  school,  or  rather  just 
before  the  hour  for  closing  it,  Miss  Mary, 
having  asked  the  children  to  put  their  books 
away,  addressed  them  as  follows: 

"  Two  of  the  scholars  came  to  me  with  this 
question  to-day :  whether  it  was  proper  for 
children  to  ask  their  parents  or  teachers  the 
reasons  of  things.  One  thought  it  was,  and 
the  other  thought  it  was  not.     I  told  them  I 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  159 

would  consider  the  question  when  all  the 
school  could  hear,  and  we  will  accordingly 
take  it  up  now.  George,  you  may  tell  us 
why  you  thought  it  was  not." 

George  was  quite  a  small  hoy,  and  he  was 
at  first  a  little  intimidated  at  being  called 
upon,  before  the  whole  school,  to  state  his 
opinion.  So  he  only  answered  faintly  that 
his  mother  told  him  so. 

"When  was  it,  George?"  <- 

"  Yesterday." 

"  Do  you  recollect  what  you  were  doing 
when  she  told  you,  and  what  she  said? 
Tell  us  all  about  it." 

"  Why,  I  was  playing  with  some  blocks, 
and  mother  said  I  must  go  to  bed,  and  I  ask- 
ed her  why;  she  said  I  was  always  asking 
why,  and  it  was  wrong  to  ask  her  why." 

"  Well,  Rollo,  now  let  us  hear  your  story." 

"  Why,  one  day  I  was  playing  in  a  tub  of 
water  by  the  pump,  and  I  had  a  little  cake- 
tin  which  I  was  sailing  about  for  my  ship, 
and  I  had  another  flat  piece  of  tin  for  my  raft. 
My  ship  would  sail  about  very  well,  but  my 
raft  would  not  sail  at  all ;  it  would  sink  di- 
rectly to  the  bottom.  I  could  not  make  it 
stay  up.  And  so  I  went  in  to  my  father,  and 
I  asked  him  why  one  would  sail  and  the 


160  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

other  would  not,  when  they  were  both  tin, 
And  he  said  he  was  very  glad  that  I  asked 
him,  and  that  it  was  right  for  children  to  ask 
why.7' 

"  Yery  well,"  said  Miss  Mary,  as  soon  as 
Rollo  had  finished.  "You  have  both  told 
your  stories  very  well. 

"  For  children  to  ask  their  parents  the  rea- 
son for  anything  they  see  or  hear,  is  some- 
times right  and  sometimes  wrong.  It  depends 
upon  circumstances.  In  George's  case,  now, 
the  circumstances  were  very  different  from 
those  of  Rollo' s.  Rollo' s  motive  was  a  desire 
of  knowledge.  He  wanted  to  have  a  diffi- 
culty explained,  and  so  he  went  to  his  father, 
at  a  proper  time  and  under  proper  circum- 
stances, and  asked  him.  In  such  cases  as 
this,  it  is  very  right  to  ask  the  reason  why. 

"  But  in  George's  case  it  was  different 
He  asked  why  he  must  go  to  bed,  not  from  a 
desire  to  learn  and  understand,  but  only  be- 
cause he  did  not  want  to  go.  He  knew  well 
enough  why  he  must  go.  It  was  time.  He 
only  asked  for  the  purpose  of  making  delay, 
and  perhaps  getting  leave  to  sit  up  longer. 

"  This  now  is  a  very  common  case  of  boys' 
asking  why.  They  are  told  to  do  something, 
and  instead  of  obeying  promptly  and  at  once, 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  161 

they  ask  why  they  must  do  it.  It  is  one  kind 
of  disobedience,  and  it  is,  of  course,  always 
wrong." 

"Then  is  it  always  wrong,"  said  Lucy, 
"  to  ask  our  father  and  mother  the  reason  for 
what  they  tell  us  to  do?" 

"No,"  said  Miss  Mary;  "not  unless  you 
make  it  an  excuse  for  putting  off  obeying. 
For  instance,  if  George  had  gone  to  bed  di- 
rectly and  pleasantly  when  his  mother  told 
him  to  go,  and  then,  the  next  day,  when  he 
saw  she  was  at  leisure,  if  he  had  gone  and 
said  to  her,  l  Mother,  what  is  the  reason  that 
children  are  generally  sent  to  bed  earlier  than 
grown  persons?'  I  don't  think  she  would  have 
considered  it  wrong.  If  he  had  asked  the 
question  in  that  way,  it  would  have  shown 
that  he  really  wanted  to  know ;  but  in  the 
other  way  he  stops  to  ask  about  the  reason 
of  the  command,  at  the  time  when  he  ought 
to  have  gone  off  and  obeyed  it." 

"  My  father  never  lets  me  ask  him  the  rea- 
son for  what  he  tells  me  to  do,"  said  Henry. 

u  You  mean,  I  rather  think,  that  he  never 
lets  you  stop  to  ask  him  the  reason  at  the 
time  when  you  ought  to  be  doing  it." 

"No,"  said  Henry.  "I  don't  think  he 
would  let  me  ask  him  at  all." 

g*  14* 


162  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

"Suppose  you  try  the  experiment.  Next 
time  he  gives  you  any  command  which  you 
do  not  understand,  go  and  obey  it  at  once, 
with  alacrity,  and  then,  afterwards,  when 
he  is  at  leisure,  go  and  ask  him  pleasantly  if 
he  will  tell  you  the  reason." 

"J  will,"  said  Henry;  "but  I  know  he 
won't  tell  me." 

"  Well,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "  we  will  now 
close  the  school ;  and  I  want  you  all  to  re- 
member what  I  have  told  you.  It  is  right  for 
you  to  want  to  understand  what  you  see  and 
hear ;  and  it  is  even  right  for  you  to  wish  to 
know  the  reasons  for  the  commands  your  pa- 
rents give  you.  But  you  must  always  do  it 
at  a  proper  time,  and  with  proper  motives, 
and  you  must  never  stop  to  ask  why,  when 
the  command  is  given  and  you  ought  to  be 
obeying  it.  And,  above  all,  you  must  never 
stop  to  say,  'Why  must  I?'  in  a  repining 
tone,  when  you  don't  really  wish  to  know 
why,  but  only  to  show  your  unwillingness  to 
obey." 

That  night,  when  Henry  went  home  from 
school,  he  had  an  opportunity  to  put  Miss 
Mary  s  opinions  to  the  test,  sooner  than  he 
had  expected.     He  walked  along  with  Rollo 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  163 

as  far  as  their  roads  went  together,  and  then 
he  turned  down  a  green  lane,  which  led,  after 
some  time,  to  a  pleasant-looking  house,  with 
a  fine  large  martin-house  upon  a  tall  pole 
near  it.  This  was  where  Henry  lived.  He 
heard  his  father  at  work  in  the  barn,  and  he 
went  and  looked  in.  His  father  and  a  large 
boy  were  grinding  some  scythes.  He  looked 
at  them  a  few  minutes,  and  then  went  into 
the  house. 

His  mother  was  at  work  in  the  kitchen, 
getting  supper.  A  small  table  was  set  in  the 
middle  of  the  room,  with  two  plates  upon  it, 
for  Henry's  father  and  mother.  At  another 
table,  by  the  window,  there  was  a  large  pan 
of  milk,  and  a  bowl  full  by  the  side  of  it. 

"  Is  this  my  bowl  of  milk?"  said  Henry. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  mother. 

So  Henry  took  up  his  bowl  of  milk  and 
carried  it  carefully  out  to  the  door,  and  put  it 
down  on  a  large  stone  which  was  in  the  back 
yard,  and  which  made  a  sort  of  seat,  where 
he  often  went  to  eat  his  bread  and  milk. 
Then  he  went  in  and  got  a  spoon  and  a  large 
piece  of  bread,  and  came  out  and  sat  down 
upon  the  stone  and  ate  his  supper.  After  this 
his  mother  told  him  it  was  time  to  go  after 


164  EOLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

the  cows,  and  so  he  put  on  his  cap  and 
walked  along. 

Henry  went,  through  a  pair  of  bars  which 
led  to  a  lane  by  the  side  of  the  barn.  He 
went  on  in  this  lane  for  some  distance,  until 
he  reached  the  place  where  the  path  entered 
among  the  trees  and  bushes.  He  was  just 
disappearing  in  the  thicket,  when  his  father 
saw  him  through  the  back  barn  door.  He 
called  out  aloud, 

"  Hen-ry." 

Henry  turned  round,  saw  his  father,  and 
answered, 

"  What,  sir?"  in  a  loud  voice. 

"  Are  you  going  after  the  cows?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Henry. 

"Well, — don't  go  over  the  bridge, — but  go 
round  by  the  stepping-stones,— going  and 
coming." 

Henry  was  so  far  off  that  his  father  had  to 
call  in  a  loud  voice,  and  to  speak  very  slowly 
and  distinctly,  in  order  to  make  him  hear. 
After  he  had  done  speaking,  he  paused  a  mo- 
ment, in  order  to  observe  whether  Henry  ap- 
peared to  understand  him. 

Henry  stood  still  an  instant,  too,  looking  at 
his  father,  and  then  he  called  out,  in  an 
equally  loud  voice, 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  165 

:iWhy  mustn't  I  go  over  the  bridge?" 

His  father,  in  reply  to  this  question,  only 
said,  "Obey!" 

Henry  understood  by  this  that  he  did  not 
think  it  proper  for  him  to  ask  the  reason. 

"  There,"  said  he  to  himself,  "  I  told  Miss 
Mary  so.     My  father  never  lets  me  ask  why." 

The  bridge  which  his  father  meant,  was 
only  a  couple  of  old  logs  laid  across  a  brook 
in  the  woods,  so  that  they  could  get  over. 
The  cows  could  not  walk  upon  it,  and  so 
they  usually  came  across  through  the  water. 
They  had  thus  worn  a  deep  place  in  the 
brook,  both  above  and  below  the  bridge,  and 
here  Henry  used  to  love  to  stop  and  play, 
sailing  boats,  watching  little  fishes,  skippers, 
<fcc.  There  was  another  way  of  going  into 
the  pasture,  by  turning  off  just  before  you 
come  to  the  bridge,  through  some  cedar 
bushes,  until  you  come  to  the  brook  at  ano- 
ther place  below;  and  there,  there  were  step- 
ping-stones. The  path  beyond  led  on  to  the 
pasture,  though  it  came  out  into  a  little  dif- 
ferent part  of  it. 

Now  Henry  preferred  to  go  by  the  bridge, 
and  he  asked  his  father  why  he  mustn't,  not 
because  he  really  wished  to  know  the  reason, 


166  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

but  only  as  a  way  of  begging  his  father  to  let 
him  go  that  way. 

Henry,  however,  obeyed.  He  left  the  path 
which  led  to  the  bridge,  at  the  proper  place, 
and  went  through  among  the  cedars  and  other 
trees  which  grew  near  the  brook,  until  he 
came  to  the  stepping-stones.  He  then  went 
on  to  the  pasture  and  found  the  cows.  He 
drove  them  along  towards  home,  and  tried  to 
make  them  go  by  the  path  his  father  had  di- 
rected him  to  take ;  but  they  liked  the  other 
road  better,  as  well  as  he,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing all  his  efforts,  they  would  go  into  the 
woods  by  the  path  which  led  to  the  bridge. 

"  Now  I  must  go  by  the  bridge,"  said 
Henry. 

On  second  thoughts,  however,  he  concluded 
to  obey  his  orders  at  all  hazards.  So  he  went 
to  the  entrance  of  the  woods,  where  the  cows 
had  gone  in,  and  shouted  to  them  some  time 
to  make  them  go  on,  and  then  he  went  him- 
self round  the  other  way. 

The  cows  stopped  a  few  minutes  to  drink 
at  the  brook,  and  accordingly  they  and  Hen- 
ry came  out  at  the  junction  of  the  two  paths 
very  nearly  together.  Henry  then  drove  them 
along  the  lane  towards  the  house. 

He   wondered  what  the  reason  could  be 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  ]  69 

why  his  father  would  not  let  him  take  the 
usual  path;  and  just  then  he  happened  to 
think  of  the  experiment  which  Miss  Mary 
had  advised  him  to  try. 

"Here  is  a  fine  chance,  said  he  to  him- 
self. "  I  will  ask  my  father,  but  I  knoio  he 
won't  tell  me." 

Accordingly,  when  he  reached  the  yard,  he 
went  to  the  barn  to  find  his  father.  It  was 
almost  dark,  and  he  was  just  shutting  the 
great  doors.  Henry  pushed  the  doors  to,  for 
him,  and  his  father  fastened  them.  Then  he 
took  hold  of  his  father's  hand,  and  they 
walked  towards  the  house. 

"  Father,"  said  he,  in  a  good-natured  tone, 
"  will  you  be  good  enough  to  tell  me  what 
the  reason  was  why  you  was  not  willing  to 
have  me  go  over  the  bridge?" 

"Oh  yes,"  said  his  father.  "We  found  a 
great  hornets'  nest  close  by  the  bridge  to-day, 
and  I  don't  want  you  to  go  that  way  until 
we  destroy  it,  for  fear  you  will  get  stung." 

"A  hornet's  nest?"  said  Henry. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  father,  "a  monstrous  one." 

"How  big?"  said  Henry. 

"  Oh,  as  big  as  your  head." 

"As  big  as  my  head?"  said  Henry,  with 
astonishment. 

h  15 


170  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

"Yes,  cap  and  all." 

"Do  you  think  the  hornets  would  have 
stung  me?"  asked  Henry  again,  after  a  mo- 
ment's pause. 

"  No,  I  don't  think  they  would." 

"  Then  why  didn't  you  let  me  go?" 

"  Because  they  might  have  stung  you, 
though  probably  they  would  not  have  done- 
it,  if  you  had  let  them  alone." 

"  When  are  you  going  to  destroy  the  nest  ?" 
said  Henry. 

"  Early  to-morrow  morning." 

Here  they  reached  the  house,  and  Henry's 
father  went  in  to  his  supper.  Henry  himself 
sat  down  upon  the  door-step,  saying  to  him- 
self, 

"Well,  Miss  Mary  was  right,  it  seems, 
after  all." 

The  next  day,  when  Henry  came  to  school, 
he  went  to  Miss  Mary's  table,  and  told  her 
he  had  tried  the  plan  of  asking  his  father  the 
reason  at  the  proper  time. 

"  And  did  he  tell  you?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"Yes,"  said  Henry,  smiling;  "he  did." 

"  I  thought  he  would.  Parents  are  gene- 
rally willing  to  give  their  children  reasons,  if 
they  ask  at  a  proper  time  and  in  a  proper 
manner." 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


171 


Miss  Maty  then  asked  Henry  what  it  was 
that  he  asked  his  father  the  reason  for,  and 
he  told  her  the  whole  story.  She  then  asked 
him  if  he  was  willing  that  she  should  tell  the 
story  to  all  the  scholars;  and  he  said  yes ;  and 
she  accordingly  did  so. 


172  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 


THE  HOLIDAY. 


Towards  the  latter  part  of  the  summer, 
when  the  leaves  of  the  forest  were  just  begin- 
ning to  turn  brown,  and  the  nights  began  to 
grow  cool,  the  children  used  to  have  a  fine 
time  getting  apples  under  the  apple-trees  in 
the  orchard.  Miss  Mary  allowed  them  to 
have  two  apiece  each  day,  one  in  the  fore- 
noon and  one  in  the  afternoon.  The  children 
rambled  about  under  the  trees,  in  the  recess, 
choosing  their  apples.  It  was  against  the  rule 
to  bite  them,  for  the  purpose  of  trying  the 
taste,  and  they  were  accordingly  obliged  to 
judge  by  the  size  and  color.  They  were  not 
allowed  to  eat  apples  in  the  orchard,  but,  after 
choosing  one  each,  they  came  back  to  the 
portico,  and,  sitting  down  upon  the  stone  or 
upon  the  grass,  ate  them  there. 

The  reason  why  Miss  Mary  did  not  allow 
the  children  to  eat  apples  anywhere  but  be- 
fore the  school-room  door,  was  that  that  was 
the  best  way  to  be  sure  that  they  did  not  any 
of  them  eat  but  one ;  and  the  reason  why  she 
did  not  wish  to  have  them  eat  more  than  one 
apiece,  was  that  she  was  afraid  that  more 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  173 

might  make  them  sick.  It  is  not  certain  that, 
if  children  eat  several  apples  at  a  time,  they 
will  be  sick;  but  they  may  be,  and  Miss 
Mary  wanted  to  be  on  the  safe  side. 

One  day,  about  this  time,  two  of  the  chil- 
dren came  running  in  to  Miss  Mary,  in  a  re- 
cess, out  of  breath,  and  apparently  very  eager 
about  something  or  other.  -  They  came  and 
stood  by  the  side  of  her  table,  and  waited  for 
her  to  give  them  permission  to  speak. 

"Well,  children,"  said  Miss  Mary,  at  length 
looking  up  from  her  work,  "  do  you  want  to 
speak  to  me?" 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  Henry,  who  was  one 
of  the  boys.  "  Will  there  be  any  school  to- 
morrow?" 

" Yes,  certainly,"  said  Miss  Mary.  "Why 
not?" 

"  Why,  it  is  training." 

"Training?"  said  Miss  Mary 

"Yes,  there  is  going  to  be  a  training  on 
the  common." 

"  And  do  my  scholars  belong  to  the  com- 
pany?" said  Miss  Mary,  smiling. 

"Why,  no,"  said  the  boys;  "they  don't 
belong  to  any  company,  but  they  want  to  see 
the  training." 

Miss  Mary  paused  and  reflected  a  moment. 
15* 


174  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Presently  she  said,  "I  will  think  of  it,  and 
tell  you  and  all  the  school,  together,  by  and 
by." 

When  the  time  for  dismissing  the  school 
had  arrived,  and  the  children  had  put  away 
their  books,  Miss  Mary  introduced  the  subject 
as  follows : 

"  I  understand  that,  there  is  to  be  a  training 
to-morrow,  and  some  of  the  children  wanted 
to  know  whether  there  will  be  any  school  or 
not.  But  first,  I  want  to  know  all  I  can 
about  the  facts.  All  the  children  that  can  tell 
me  anything  about  the  training  may  rise." 

Here  several  children  stood  up. 

Miss  Mary  called  upon  them  one  after  ano- 
ther, and  they  told  various  things.  One  said 
that  it  was  the  Light  Infantry  that  were  going 
to  train.  Another  said  that  he  believed  they 
were  going  to  have  a  new  uniform.  Another 
said  that  his  uncle  Ephraim  was  going  to 
train.  Another  said  they  were  going  to  fire, 
&c.  At  last,  all  the  children  had  told  what 
they  knew  about  it,  and  all  sat  down. 

Then  Miss  Mary  asked  all  those  to  rise 
who  knew  whether  any  other  schools  were 
going  to  be  dismissed  for  that  day ;  but  none 
of  the  children  knew  of  any. 

Then  Miss  Mary  asked   all   those  to  rise 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  175 

who  had  heard  their  parents  say  anything 
about  school  being  dismissed  that  day.  Seve- 
ral rose. 

"Well,  James,  what  did  your  father  say?" 

"  He  said  that  if  you  did  not  keep  school, 
he  would  take  me  out  to  the  common." 

"George,  what  did  yours  say?" 

"  It  was  my  mother." 

George  hung  his  head  and  looked  rather 
foolish,  adding,  in  a  low  tone, 

"  She  said  she  hoped  you  would  not  dismiss 
the  school." 

"  Did  she  say  why  not?" 

"  I  suppose  she  did  not  want  to  have  me  go 
to  training." 

"Rollo?" 

"  My  father  does  not  like  to  have  me  go  to 
training." 

"Why  not?" 

"He  is  afraid  I  shall  get  hurt." 

"Lucy?"  said  Miss  Mary,  observing  that 
Lucy  was  standing  ready  to  speak. 

"  My  mother  said,"  Lucy  replied,  "that  per- 
haps there  would  be  so  many  persons  in  the 
streets,  that  we  could  not  go  back  and  forth 
to  school  very" well." 

"  That  is  to  be  thought  of,  it  is  true,"  said 


176  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Miss  Mary.  Then,  after  a  short  pause,  she 
continued  thus : 

"  On  the  whole,  considering  all  the  circum- 
stances, I  think  we  had  better  have  a  holiday. 
But  I  don't  like  to  have  you  go  to  the  train- 
ing. It  is  a  rude,  noisy  scene,  where  you 
will  be  very  likely  to  get  hurt.  So  I  will  pro- 
pose that  you  should  all  come  and  spend  the 
holiday  here.  We  will  gather  apples  in  the 
forenoon,  and  in  the  afternoon  we  will  build 
a  fire  in  the  woods  and  roast  some  of  them.'7 

The  eyes  of  a  good  many  of  the  children 
sparkled  at  this,  for  they  were  very  much 
pleased  with  the  thought  of  spending  the  day 
with  Miss  Mary  in  play.  Miss  Mary  used 
often  to  go  out  with  them  in  the  recess,  and 
help  them  in  their  plays,  and  tell  them  stories, 
and  she  knew  so  many  good  plays  and  inte- 
resting stories,  that  they  always  enjoyed  such 
times  very  highly. 

Still,  however,  some  of  the  children  appeared 
a  little  unwilling  to  give  up  the  training.  One 
little  fellow,  who  had  looked  very  restless  and 
uneasy  during  this  conversation,  said  that  if 
they  came  there  they  should  not  see  the  tent. 

"Is  there  to  be  a  tent  on  the  common]" 
said  Miss  Mary. 


R0LL0   AT    SCHOOL.  177 

Several  of  the  children  said  that  there 
was. 

"  Oh,  well,  we  can  have  a  tent  too,"  said 
Miss  Mary. 

"  However,"  she  continued,  after  a  mo- 
ment's pause,  "  you  can  do  as  you  please,  or 
rather  as  your  parents  please.  We  will  have 
no  school,  and  you  can  all  tell  your  parents 
that  I  shall  keep  holiday  in  the  orchard,  and 
shall  be  glad  to  have  any  of  you  come  that 
would  like  to  come.  You  must  come  in  the 
morning,  and  stay  all  day.  If  any  of  you 
prefer  to  go  to  the  training,  and  your  parents 
are  willing,  you  can  go,  of  course ;  or  if  your 
parents  think  it  will  not  be  safe  for  you  to 
come  here  through  the  streets,  then,  of  course, 
you  will  not  come." 

The  children  seemed  satisfied  with  this  ar- 
rangement, and  Miss  Mary  prepared  to  close 
the  school. 

"  One  thing  more,"  said  Miss  Mary,  sud- 
denly recollecting  herself.  "Have  any  of  you 
any  little  wheelbarrows  or  wagons  at  home  ? 
If  you  have  you  may  rise." 

At  these  words  several  of  the  children  arose, 
and  Miss  Mary  asked  them  what  they  had. 
One  had  a  pair  of  trucks,  another  a  little 
wheelbarrow,  another  a  wagon,  and  another, 


178  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

one  of  the  smallest  boys,  named  Ezra,  said 
he  had  a  drag. 

"What  is  your  drag?"  said  Miss  Mary. 

"  I  haul  stones  upon  it,"  said  the  little  boy. 

"  Yes,  but  how  is  it  made  V 

The  boy  looked  a  little  confused,  and  said 
he  did  not  know. 

"  Well,  never  mind,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "we 
shall  see  it  when  it  comes. 

"Now,  boys,"  she  continued,  "we  shall 
want  all  the  c^rts  and  wagons  you  can  bring, 
to  draw  the  apples  in  with.  I  should  like, 
therefore,  to  have  you  bring  anything  of  the 
kind  you  may  have,  if  your  parents  are  wil- 
ling. Be  sure  not  to  bring  them  without  their 
consent." 

After  this,  Miss  Mary  closed  the  school  with 
the  usual  religious  exercises,  and  the  children 
went  home. 

As  the  children  walked  along  out  of  the 
gate,  Henry  said  that  he  should  rather  go  to 
the  training,  and  he  hoped  his  father  would 
let  him  go. 

"Oh  no,"  said  Rollo  and  Lucy,  both  toge- 
ther. "  It  will  be  a  great  deal  pleasanter  here 
than  at  the  training,  I  know." 

"No  it  won't,"  said  Julius.  "I  would 
rather  go  to  the  training,  a  great  deal." 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  179 

*  1  expect  my  father  will  make  me  come  to 
the  school,  at  any  rate,"  said  Henry,  "  when 
he  knows  that  Miss  Mary  is  going  tcrkeep 
holiday  out  in  the  orchard." 

"  I  shan't  tell  my  father  anything  about  it," 
said  Julius. 

"  Nor  I  my  mother,"  said  Dovey. 

Here  the  children  separated  and  went  off, 
in  little  groups,  in  various  directions,  talking 
together.  Dovey,  however,  altered  her  mind 
before  she  got  home.  She  reflected  that  it 
would  be  wrong  not  to  tell  her  mother  exactly 
what  the  facts  were.  Besides,  she  concluded 
that,  after  all,  she  should  rather  go  and  spend 
the  day  with  Miss  Mary. 

Julius,  on  the  other  hand,  told  his  father, 
when  he  got  home,  that  there  was  not  to  be 
any  school  the  next  day,  but  said  nothing 
about  Miss  Mary's  plan;  and  accordingly,  the 
next  morning,  after  breakfast,  he  went  out 
into  the  streets,  and  gradually  made  his  way 
towards  the  common. 

Early  in  the  morning  Miss  Mary's  father, 
having  heard  that  all  the  children  were  com- 
ing the  next  day  to  pick  up  his  apples,  opened 
a  great  gate  leading  from  the  yard  to  the  or- 
chard ;  he  also  got  up  a  large  number  of  bar- 
rels out  of  the  cellar,  and  arranged  them  in  a 


180  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

row  on  the  great  barn  floor.  He  also  got  his 
wheelbarrow  and  his  handcart  ready;  and 
soon  after  breakfast  the  children  began  to 
come. 

They  gathered  about  the  school-room  door, 
bringing  all  sorts  of  little  vehicles  with  them. 
Rollo  brought  his  wheelbarrow,  and  another 
boy  a  pair  of  trucks,  consisting  of  a  box  on 
four  low  wooden  wheels;  a  third  came  with 
a  painted  wagon,  made  to  draw  little  children 
in,  the  top  covered  with  a  green  awning. 
While  the  children  were  gathering  around, 
and  examining  and  admiring  these  various 
vehicles,  they  saw  little  Ezra  tugging  away 
at  the  gate,  endeavoring  to  pull  something 
through.  It  proved  to  be  his  drag;  which 
was,  in  fact,  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an 
old  worn-out  tea-waiter,  which  his  mother 
had  given  him.  He  had  tied  a  strong  string 
into  the  handle  at  one  end,  by  means  of 
which  he  could  drag  it  about  the  yard. 

When  the  children  were  all  assembled,  Miss 
Mary  came  out  and  stood  in  the  portico 
among  them,  looking  at  their  carts  and 
wagons.  Each  called  to  her  eagerly  to  look 
at  his  own,  and  several  pointed,  laughing,  at 
Ezra's  drag.  Miss  JVlary,  seeing  that  Ezra 
looked  a  little  troubled  at  having  his  drag 


ROLLO   AT    SlUOOL.  181 

laughed  at,  went  to  it  and  examined  it,  and 
said  it  was  a  very  good  drag.  She  told  him 
to  come  with  her  and  she  would  find  him  a 
box  to  put  on  it,  and  then  he  could  draw  a 
good  many  apples, — almost  as  many  as  the 
other  boys  could  with  their  wheelbarrows. 

When  Rollo  saw  Miss  Mary  thus  trying  to 
help  little  Ezra,  and  to  make  him  feel  con- 
tented and  happy,  instead  of  laughing  at  him 
and  giving  him  pain,  he  was  sorry  that  he 
had  laughed  at  him,  as  he  had  done,  with  the 
rest.  It  is  right  for  boys  to  laugh  when  they 
see  anything  amusing,  unless  they  perceive 
that  it  is  the  means  of  giving  somebody  pain; 
and  that  it  is  never  right  to  do  for  the  sake 
of  amusement. 

Rollo  thought,  too,  that  it  must  be  a  great 
satisfaction  to  Miss  Mary  to  give  pleasure  to 
the  scholars  in  such  ways  as  that,  and  he 
thought  he  would  imitate  her  example.  He 
accordingly  went  up  to  Ezra  and  offered  to 
exchange  with  him. 

"  I  will  let  you  have  my  wheelbarrow  a 
little  while,  Ezra,  if  you  want  it,  and  I  will 
take  your  drag-." 

"Will  you?"  said  Ezra,  much  pleased. 
"  Well, — I  should  like  your  wheelbarrow  very 
much." 

16 


182  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

Just  as  Ezra  began  to  try  Rollo's  wheel- 
barrow, Miss  Mary,  who  stood  on  the  portico, 
called  all  the  children  to  come  and  form  a 
ring  before  her.  So  they  all  left  their  carts 
and  wagons  and  came  to  her,  as  she  desired. 
'Now,  children,"  said  she,  "I  am  going  to 
give  the  orders  of  the  day.  We  are  all  going 
to  work  this  forenoon,  and  play  this  afternoon. 
I  shall  give  you  all  directions  where  you  are 
to  go,  and  what  apples  you  are  to  gather; 
and  you  must  obey  the  directions  exactly, 
without  asking  why,  or  requesting  me  to 
change  them.  There  are  so  many  of  you, 
that  if  I  stop  to  explain  to  every  one,  I  shall 
be  talking  all  the  time.  You  must  not  eat 
any  apples,  and  not  even  bite  one,  until  I  give 
you  leave.  I  shall  form  you  into  companies 
and  give  you  your  stations ;  and  each  must 
keep  his  station,  and  obey  the  leader  of  his 
company,  until  I  change  him. 

"Now,  James,"  she  continued,  "wheel 
your  wheelbarrow  into  the  ring." 

So  James  went  out  and  got  his  wheelbar- 
row, and  wheeled  it  in  where  all  the  children 
could  see  it. 

"Now  who  would  like  to  belong  to  James's 
company?" 

Several  of  the  children  raised  their  hands. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  183 

"Look  around,  James,"  said  Miss  Mary, 
"  and  choose  any  four  of  those  whose  hands 
are  up  that  you  would  like  to  have  help  you." 

James  looked  about  for  a  minute  or  two,  and 
then  chose  two  girls  and  two  boys,  and  they 
went  and  stood  by  James's  wheelbarrow. 

"There,  James,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "there 
is  your  company.  You  may  go  out  to  the 
great  russet  tree  and  pick  up  apples.  All 
your  company  must  stay  at  that  tree,  under 
your  direction.  If  any  difficulty  occurs,  or 
if  any  of  your  company  want  anything,  you 
must  come  yourself  and  tell  me.  You  must 
also  come  and  tell  me  when  you  get  your 
wheelbarrow  full." 

So  James  took  up  his  wheelbarrow  and 
went  along,  his  company  following  him,  until 
they  reached  the  great  russet  tree,  and  began 
to  pick  up  the  apples  which  lay  there. 

In  the  Same  manner  Miss  Mary  organized 
another  company,  a  boy  who  had  a  pair  of 
tracks  being  at  the  head  of  it ;  and  another 
with  a  little  wagon.  Next  she  called  Rollo, 
and  he  came,  pulling  in  Ezra's  drag. 

"But  where's  your  wheelbarrow?"  said 
Miss  Mary. 

"  I  have  exchanged  with  Ezra,"  said  Rollo. 

"Oh,  have  you?"  said  Miss  Mary.    "Well, 


1S4  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

that  is  a  very  good  plan.  Who  will  you  have 
for  your  company?" 

Rollo  chose  Dovey  and  Henry,  and  two 
very  little  boys.  His  company  were  sent  to 
a  tree  that  bore  large  red  apples.  Ezra,  with 
Rollo' s  wheelbarrow,  and  a  company  which 
he  had  chosen,  went  to  another  tree  pretty 
near;  and  thus  in  a  short  time  all  the  chil- 
dren were  distributed  over  the  orchard,  each 
company  under  the  tree  assigned  to  it. 

Miss  Mary  adopted  this  systematic  plan  in 
order  that  things  might  go  on  smoothly  and 
pleasantly;  for  some  system  is  necessary 
when  a  great  number  of  persons  are  to  be  em- 
ployed in  any  one  work.  When  the  children 
were  all  engaged,  she  herself  took  her  work 
and  went  out  into  the  orchard,  and  sat  under 
the  shade  of  a  tree,  where,  by  looking  up  oc- 
casionally, she  could  see  how  things  went  on. 

After  she  had  been  sitting  there  a  minute 
or  two,  she  recollected  that  she  ought  to  have 
a  messenger  to  send  around  to  tell  the  chil- 
dren anything  she  might,  from  time  to  time, 
wish  to  communicate  to  them.  She  accord- 
ingly looked  to  one  of  the  nearest  companies 
to  find  some  gentle,  pleasant  girl  or  boy.  She 
chose  Rollo' s  cousin  Lucy,  and  beckoned  to 
her  to  come. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  185 

u  Lucy,"  said  she,  "  I  forgot  one  thing.  I 
want  you  to  go  around  to  all  the  companies, 
and  tell  them  they  must  be  particular  to  put 
the  apples  into  the  carts  and  wagons  very 
carefully,  and  not  bruise  them." 

As  soon  as  Lucy  was  gone,  Rollo  came  to 
Miss  Mary,  to  tell  her  that  his  company  had 
got  the  box  full,  which  she  had  put  upon 
Ezra's  drag,  and  he  wanted  to  know  what  he 
should  do  with  the  apples. 

"Appoint  two  of  your  company  to  draw 
them  carefully  to  the  barn.  Perhaps  you  had 
better  go  yourself  for  one." 

So  Rollo  went  back  and  appointed  Henry 
to  go  with  him. 

"  I  mean  to  go  too,"  said  Dovey. 

"No  you  mustn't,"  said  Rollo.  "  Miss 
Mary  said  tico." 

"But  she  did  not  say  you  must  not  appoint 
more  than  two.     I  will  go." 

By  this  time  Henry  and  Rollo  had  taken 
hold  of  the  string,  and  had  begun  to  draw  the 
drag;  but  Dovey  insisted  upon  following 
them.  Rollo  began  to  feel  a  little  angry,  and 
said  he  never  would  choose  Dovey  in  his 
company  again. 

After  a  moment's  reflection,  however,  he 
thought  that  it  was  wrong  to  be  angry  and  to 


186  *OLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

scold  at  Dovey,  and  he  recollected  that  Miss 
Mary  had  told  him  that  if  there  was  any  dif- 
ficulty he  must  come  to  her.  So  he  let  go  of 
the  string,  and  walked  quietly  away  to  Miss 
Mary  and  told  her  the  case. 

•{  Ask  Dovey  to  come  here,"  said  Miss 
Mary. 

Dovey  obeyed,  and  Miss  Mary  asked  her 
if  it  was  true  that  she  would  insist  upon  going 
with  Rollo. 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  Dovey.  "I  wanted  to 
go  as  well  as  Henry." 

"  But  he  appointed  Henry." 

"  I  wanted  him  to  appoint  me  too." 

Miss  Mary  paused  a  moment,  and  then 
said, 

"  Dovey,  you  have  done  wrong.  Unless 
each  company  follows  the  directions  I  give 
them,  through  their  leaders,  the  whole  field 
would  soon  be  in  confusion.  Look, — see 
there,"  she  said,  pointing  to  a  tree  upon  one 
side. 

Dovey  looked  and  saw  Ezra  and  another 
boy  struggling  for  Rollo' s  wheelbarrow.  This 
other  boy's  name  was  Samuel.  They  listened, 
and  could  hear  what  they  were  saying. 

"  I  will  move  it,"  said  Samuel. 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  187 

"No,  you  shall  not;  it  must  stay  here," 
said  Ezra. 

"  Ezra,  let  go,"  said  Samuel,  pulling. 

"  You  shan't  have  it,"  said  Ezra. 

Here  Miss  Mary  asked  Dovey  to  go  and 
tell  both  the  boys  to  come  to  her. 

Dovey,  glad  to  have  another  difficulty  oc- 
cur to  call  away  Miss  Mary's  attention  from 
her  own  case,  ran  off  at  full  speed,  and  soon 
brought  the  combatants  under  Miss  Mary's 
tree. 

"  You  see,  Dovey,"  said  Miss  Mary,  with- 
out speaking  to  the  boys,  "  what  would  hap- 
pen if  the  children  in  all  the  companies  were 
to  become  insubordinate,  as  you  and  Samuel 
have.  We  should  have  incessant  disputes 
and  contentions  all  over  the  field.  Now  I  di- 
rected you  all,  very  plainly,  to  obey  the  lead- 
ers of  your  companies ;  and,  as  you  did  not, 
I  must  send  you  away  for  a  time.  You  must 
go  to  the  portico,  and  sit  down  there,  till  I 
send  for  you  again." 

So  Dovey  went  and  took  her  solitary  seat 
upon  the  portico  floor,  with  her  feet  upon  the 
great  flat  stone. 

Then  Miss  Mary  turned  to  Samuel. 

"  Samuel,"  said  she,  "  you  have  been  dis- 
obeying, too." 


J  88  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

*•  Why,  Miss  Mary,"  said  Samuel,  "  Ezra 
would  not  let  me  move  the  wheelbarrow  over 
to  where  the  apples  were  thicker." 

"  Yes,  but  Ezra  was  the  leader  of  your 
company,  and  you  ought  to  have  let  him 
place  it  just  where  he  pleased.  You  have 
been  insubordinate  too.  You  must  go  and 
sit  in  the  portico  with  Dovey." 

Then  Miss  Mary  sent  Lucy  around  to  all 
the  companies,  to  tell  them  that  Samuel  and 
Dovey  had  been  sent  away  because  they 
were  insubordinate,  and  that  she  hoped  there 
would  be  no  more  cases.  The  children  look- 
ed at  Dovey  and  Samuel,  and  determined  that 
they  would  not  make  any  such  difficulty,  so 
as  to  make  Miss  Mary  send  them  away.  Af- 
ter a  time,  Miss  Mary  let  them  both  come 
back. 

Pretty  soon  after  the  children  began  to 
gather  the  apples,  a  large  strong  boy  came 
out  of  the  house,  with  a  light  ladder  and  a 
pole ;  and  he  went  around,  from  tree  to  tree, 
shaking  off  the  apples,  and  thus  keeping  all 
the  companies  well  employed.  As  soon  as 
one  tree  was  gathered,  the  company  belonging 
to  it  was  sent  to  another.  They  hauled  and 
wheeled  their  loads  of  apples  into  the  barn, 
where  a  man  was  ready  to  put  them  into  the 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  189 

proper  barrels;  and  in  the  course  of  three 
hours  they  had  gathered  and  got  in  a  great 
many.  Rollo,  at  first,  had  some  trouble  with 
Ezra's  drag,  and  he  was  at  one  time  upon  the 
point  of  going  to  ask  Miss  Mary  to  let  him 
change  again.  But  when  he  looked  at  Ezra, 
and  saw  how  much  pleased  he  appeared  to 
be  with  his  wheelbarrow,  he  concluded  to  let 
him  keep  it.  The  box  troubled  him  by  slip- 
ping off,  but  at  last  the  man  at  the'  barn  tied 
it  on  with  a  strong  cord,  and  after  that  he  did 
very  well. 

The  children  enjoyed  their  work  very 
much,  and  the  forenoon  slipped  away  rapidly. 
In  fact,  they  were  quite  surprised  when  Miss 
Mary  sent  word  round  to  the  companies  each 
to  finish  the  tree  they  were  under,  and  then 
to  rendezvous  at  the  portico.  They  accord- 
ingly did  so ;  and  all  gathered  around  Miss 
Mary,  who  took  her  stand  upon  the  great  flat 
stone. 

Miss  Mary  then  ordered  all  the  carts  and 
trucks  and  wheelbarrows  to  be  formed  into  a 
line,  each  attended  by  its  own  company. 
She  sent  one  round  into  the  barn  to  get  a  load 
of  the  best  apples  they  could  find,  choosing 
them  out  of  the  different  barrels.  The  second 
was  despatched  to  the  garden  after  a  load  ot 


190  ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

green  corn.  She  went  into  the  house  and  got 
a  large  parcel  done  up  in  a  great  newspaper, 
and  put  it  into  Ezra's  drag;  and  then  pre- 
sently brought  out  another  parcel,  which 
looked  like  a  sheet  rolled  up,  and  put  that 
into  Rollo's  wheelbarrow. 

She  then  asked  two  of  the  largest  boys  to 
go  around  into  the  shed  and  bring  three  poles, 
which  they  would  see  there  by  the  side  of  the 
door.  The  boys  went,  and  presently  return- 
ed ;  one  had  a  very  long  pole,  and  the  other 
had  two  shorter  ones,  with  a  crotch  at  one 
end  of  each. 

"Now,"  said  Miss  Mary,  "we  are  ready 
to  form  the  caravan." 

The  children  looked  very  much  interested 
and  pleased,  wondering  what  Miss  Mary  was 
going  to  do. 

She  formed  the  companies  in  a  line  again, 
all  with  their  loaded  vehicles.  She  gave  the 
long  pole  to  a  large  boy,  and,  after  whispering 
something  in  his  ear,  placed  him  at  the  head. 
Next  to  him  came  two  other  boys  with  the 
crotched  poles,  then  the  various  companies  in 
procession,  ending  with  Ezra  and  his  drag; 
and.  finally,  Miss  Mary  herself  brought  up 
the  rear.  When  all  was  arranged,  she  gave 
the  command  to  move. 


ROLLO   AT    SCHOOL.  191 

The  pole-bearer,  of  course,  led  the  way; 
Miss  Mary  had  whispered  to  him  where  to 
go.  He  walked  on  through  the  orchard,  until 
he  came  to  the  great  gate  at  the  farther  side. 
He  passed  through  the  gate  into  a  wood,  the 
long  train,  or  caravan,  as  Miss  Mary  termed 
it,  following  him,  until  finally  he  turned  off, 
by  a  narrow  pathway,  down  into  a  glen, 
where  he  came  at  length  to  an  opening,  by 
the  borders  of  a  brook,  where  Miss  Mary  told 
them  to  stop. 

It  was  a  very  pleasant  place,  and  the  chil- 
dren capered  around  it  with  delight.  The 
several  companies  unloaded  their  carts  and 
wheelbarrows,  and  put  the  contents  in  a  little 
place  under  the  bushes,  which  Miss  Mary 
called  her  store-room. 

"Now,  then,"  said  she,  unrolling  the  bun- 
dle of  white  cotton  cloth. 

"Why,  Miss  Mary,  what  is  that?"  said 
they,  gathering  around  her. 

"  It  is  our  tent." 

"Tent!"  said  the  children  with  surprise. 

"Yes,"  said  Miss  Mary;  "  did  not  I  pro- 
mise you  a  tent?" 

So  Miss  Mary  unrolled  the  parcel.  It 
turned  out  to  be  a  large  sheet,  with  strong 
tapes   sewed  at  equal   distances    along  the 


192  ROLLO   AT    oon 

edges.  Miss  Mary  then,  with  the  help  of 
some  of  the  older  children,  laid  down  the  long 
pole  upon  the  ground,  and  spread  the  sheet 
over  it,  in  such  a  way  as  that  the  pole  reach- 
ed across  from  side  to  side,  under  the  middle 
of  the  sheet  Then  two  boys  took  hold  of 
the  two  ends  of  the  pole  and  raised  it  up,  the 
sheet  hanging  over  it. 

Miss  Mary  then  struck  the  crotched  poles 
down  into  the  ground,  the  lower  ends  having 
been  made  sharp  for  this  purpose.  She  put 
these  sharp  ends  down  exactly  under  the  ends 
of  the  long  pole,  and  then  lifted  the  long  pole 
over,  so  as  to  put  the  two  ends  into  the 
crotches.  'Still  the  crotched  poles  were  not 
driven  down  into  the  ground  far  enough  to 
stand  up  strong  by  themselves,  and  so  two 
boys  stood  by  to  hold  them,  until  Miss  Mary 
should  fasten  the  tent. 

She  then  took  hold  of  the  two  sides  of  the 
sheet,  which  hung  down  from  the  long  pole, 
and  extended  them  each  way  like  the  roof  of 
a  house;  the  children  holding  them  out,  until 
Miss  Mary  could  fasten  them.  She  then 
drove  down  some  small  stakes  along  the 
ground,  in  a  row,  on  each  side  of  the  tent, 
and  tied  the  tapes  to  them.     This  kept  the 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  193 

covering  extended,  and  made  the  upright 
poles  steady,  and  the  tent  was  done. 

All  the  children  then  wanted  to  go  into  it, 
and  Miss  Mary  told  them  to  be  careful  and 
not  rim  against  the  tapes  or  the  poles,  for 
they  were  not  very  strong.  Miss  Mary 
thought  she  was  not  a  very  good  tent-maker, 
but  the  children  thought  that  the  tent  was  a 
beautiful  one. 

"  I  think  it  is  a  great  deal  better  than  the 
tent  on  the  common,"  said  Rollo.  "Isn't  it, 
Miss  Mary?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Dovey ;  "  because  you  know 
we  can't  go  into  that." 

As  soon  as  the  tent  was  finished,  Miss 
Mary  sent  off  all  the  carts,  trucks,  and  wheel- 
barrows, into  the  woods  around,  after  sticks 
to  make  a  fire  with.  She  herself  struck  a 
light  and  began  to  kindle  the  fire,  at  some 
distance  from  the  tent,  and  the  boys  piled  on 
load  after  load  of  fuel,  until  they  had  a  blaz- 
ing fire. 

They  at  length  found  a  small  log  of  wood, 
rather  long,  which  the  boys  contrived  to  roll 
up  towards  the  fire.  They  placed  the-  ends 
upon  two  stones,  which  answered  for  andi- 
rons, and  thus  had  a  very  respectable  fore- 
stick.  They  then  husked  their  corn,  and 
i  17 


194  KOLLO   AT    SCHOOL. 

leaned  it  up  against  the  forestick  to  roast,  arri 
they  put  a  long  row  of  apples  close  to  the 
fire,  upon  another  side,  and  they  soon  began 
to  hiss  and  sing  very  cheerily. 

Miss  Mary  then  asked  Ezra  to  go  and 
bring  her  the  large  paper  parcel  which  came 
in  his  drag.  She  untied  the  twine  and  care- 
fully unrolled  the  paper,  and  out  came  a  large 
quantity  of  slices  of  bread  and  butter,  and 
one  or  two  pies.  In  fact,  with  what  Miss 
Mary  had  brought  down  in  this  bundle,  and 
with  what  they  roasted  at  the  fire,  they  made 
out  a  grand  repast.  They  ate  it  in  the  tent, 
seated  close  together  in  a  row  around  the  in- 
side, upon  the  grass,  with  their  provisions 
upon  the  wheelbarrows  turned  bottom  up- 
wards in  the  middle,  for  tables.  Miss  Mary 
could  not  sit  very  comfortably  within  the 
tent,  it  was  so  low;  and  she  accordingly  took 
her  station  at  the  door  of  it,  upon  a  seat  form- 
ed of  the  box  belonging  to  Ezra's  drag,  which 
she  turned  down  for  this  purpose  upon  its 
side. 

Each  one  of  the  children  had  an  ear  of 
corn,,  a  roasted  apple,  a  slice  of  bread  and 
butter,  and  a  piece  of  pie;  and  Miss  Mary 
thought  that,  however  unscientific  her  tent 
might  appear  in  the  eyes  of  a  tent-maker, 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  195 

there  was  probably  as  much  enjoyment  tinder 
it  as  there  was  under  the  tent  upon  the  com- 
mon. After  they  had  finished  their  dinner, 
she  sat  an  hour  telling  them  stories;  and  then 
they  went  down  to  the  brook  and  sailed  little 
boats  for  some  time.  At  last  the  time  arrived 
for  them  to  prepare  to  go  home.  The  carts 
and  wagons,  with  their  companies,  formed  a 
line  again,  and  moved  slowly  along  out  of  the 
wood,  back  through  the  orchard  to  the  school- 
room, in  the  same  order  in  which  they  came. 

Miss  Mary  found  that  Lucy  was  rathei 
afraid  to  go  home.  The  reason  was,  that  she 
was  naturally  a  little  timid,  and,  besides,  her 
road  lay  rather  nearer  the  common  and  the 
soldiers  than  those  of  most  of  the  other  chil- 
dren. Lucy  lingered  behind  with  Rollo  after 
the  other  children  had  gone,  and  Miss  Mary, 
finding  that  she  was  afraid,  said  she  would 
go  a  part  of  the  way  with  her. 

They  accordingly  walked  along  together, 
Miss  Mary  in  the  middle,  leading  Rollo  by 
one  hand  and  Lucy  by  the  other.  Presently 
they  came  into  the  part  of  the  town  where 
the  common  was  situated.  They  were  not 
going  directly  by  it,  for  their  road  turned  off 
from  the  main  road  just  before  it  reached  the 
common. 


96  ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL. 

As  they  approached  this  turn,  they  heard 
the  occasional  firing  of  guns,  and  wild  shouts, 
and  a  rattling  of  wagons  and  trampling  of 
horses,  and  the  atmosphere  seemed  half  filled 
with  dust  and  smoke.  Lucy  clung  closer  to 
Miss  Mary's  hand,  and  even  Rollo  was  glad 
he  was  not  any  nearer  the  scene.  Just  as 
they  were  turning  off  into  the  other  road,  they 
suddenly  saw  a  troop  of  boys  coming  at  full 
speed,  and  with  great  noise,  around  a  corner 
at  some  distance  before  them. 

"  Why,  Miss  Mary,"  said  Rollo,  "what  is 
that?'7 

"  Only  some  rude,  bad  boys." 

"What  are  they  doing ?  Why  !  is  not  that 
Julius?" 

For  while  Rollo  was  actually  asking  the 
questions,  he  observed  that  the  boys  seemed 
to  be  pursuing  one  who  was  running  a  little 
before  the  rest,  without  his  hat,  and  apparent- 
ly very  much  terrified.  The  other  boys  were 
armed  with  sticks,  and  were  shouting,  appa- 
rently in  anger.  In  a  moment  Rollo  perceived 
that  the  boy  in  front  was  Julius,  and  imme- 
diately supposed  that  he  had  got  into  some 
quarrel  with  the  bad  boys  on  the  common. 

Miss  Mary  and  Rollo  stopped,  but  Lucy 
pulled  gently  upon  Miss  Mary's  hand,  as  if 


ROLLO    AT    SCHOOL.  197 

she  wished  to  go  on.  Julius  ran  into  a  small 
store,  and  the  other  boys  stopped  and  gathered 
around  the  door.  Presently  the  man  in  the 
store  came  to  the  door  and  drove  them  away. 
They  went  off  a  little  distance,  and  remained 
there,  with  threatening  looks  and  gestures, 
waiting  to  catch  Julius  when  he  should  come 
out.  Miss  Mary  and  the  children  then  went 
along,  and  when  they  were  beyond  all  dan- 
ger Miss  Mary  returned  home. 

The  school  continued,  after  this,  several 
weeks ;  during  which  time  Rollo  went  on 
with  his  reading,  writing,  spelling  and  arith- 
metic, and  he  found  that  they  became  easier 
as  he  advanced.  Dovey  improved  very  much 
too,  though  she  did  not  get  entirely  free  from  her 
old  habits.  As  for  Julius,  he  grew  worse  and 
worse ;  more  indolent  and  careless,  and  perti- 
nacious and  stubborn.  In  fact,  children  are 
generally  growing  either  worse  or  better.  At 
last  his  father  took  him  away  from  school. 
What  became  of  him,  perhaps  the  reader  may 
learn  in  the  book  called  Rollo' s  Vacation. 


